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The story
A post claiming that Sapporo City responded to a parent’s complaint — “my child came home from school hungry because of lunch” — with “there’s been no change in the portion size or nutritional content of school lunches” became a hot topic on 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyo G board. The photo of the lunch tray the parent shared spread widely after being compared to prison food, and the thread spiraled into a fact-check battle over whether real prison meals actually look like that. Opinions split between people who suspected the free-lunch program had shrunk the portions, those who argued you shouldn’t complain when it’s free, and others who pushed back that kids’ meals shouldn’t be the ones getting cut.
What people said
Seriously, same thought here
You think you get to eat sausage-like meat like that in prison? Go do a stint inside once — it'll change your whole worldview. When meat actually shows up, guys eat it with tears in their eyes.
Back in my day it was a real pain.
Why not just pack some extra side dishes in a bento for your kid?
Just feed them properly at breakfast and dinner and there's no problem.
If they charged something like 5,000 yen a month, it'd probably be decent again.
That's a whole-fish day. Why are you comparing it to some special menu day?
Disposable chopsticks in prison? Come on, that's a dead giveaway you've never actually been inside. This is obviously one of those "prison food experience" meals for visitors.
Disposable chopsticks? No way.
Individually packaged condiments? No way.
Prison meals are legally fixed at one rice, one soup, two side dishes — so even the number of dishes is wrong.
A whole fish served intact? Never happens — the bones are always removed before serving. No tail either. They don't serve anything you can't eat as-is.
Are people seriously getting fooled into thinking this is real prison food?
Honestly, missing a proper lunch once isn't going to do much harm anyway.
If you really care about your kid, just make sure breakfast and dinner are solid.
Seriously, that would be rough — there's no time in the morning as it is
A picky eater probably couldn't handle all of that.
Maybe they could just barely manage the miso soup
My grandma said the exact same thing, that she'd never had school lunch either! Don't sweat it!
Prison meals, on the other hand, are the national government's responsibility, and to avoid any liability issues, they end up serving surprisingly normal food just to make sure nothing goes wrong.
That's because it's the "prison food" served at a prison-themed restaurant, not an actual prison
Packaged condiments.
Chopsticks that look disposable.
Called it — fake.
Wait, is this seriously supposed to be the FULL portion? 😨
Chinese commenters: "That's way too little!!"
https://funakamome.com/i/Rz11gYr.jpg
Background and Key Points of This Debate
While more municipalities across Japan are making school lunches free, the funding comes from single-year local government budgets that structurally struggle to keep pace with rising prices — making it an easy target for cuts. Prison meals, by contrast, are managed by the national government under the Act on Penal Detention Facilities, which sets a legal minimum standard of one rice dish, one soup, and two side dishes, making their quantity and quality comparatively stable. That institutional gap is the backdrop for the thread’s running joke that “prison food is actually the better meal.” That said, commenters repeatedly pointed out that the photo circulating as “prison food” likely isn’t the real thing, citing details like disposable chopsticks, individually packaged condiments, and a fish served with its bones still in — none of which match actual prison meals. As for the school lunch photo, there’s no way to confirm the circumstances it was taken in or whether that day’s menu was unusual (e.g., a fish-only day), so based on the information in this article alone, it’s impossible to say for certain whether the portions have really shrunk.
*This article is composed of excerpts and summaries from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Parent: “My kid came home starving” — City: “There’s been no change in the portion size or nutrients of school lunches” — Parent: “Look at this photo”.”
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