Young People’s Favorite Meat Is Chicken, Not Beef or Pork — Matsuko Guessed Pork and Missed; 5ch: “Cheap but Tasty”

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The story

On the September 18 broadcast of TV Asahi’s “Matsuko & Arihiro’s Temporary Paradise,” the talk turned to the popularity of beef, pork, and chicken, introducing survey results showing that the most popular meat among young people isn’t beef or pork, but chicken. Matsuko had predicted pork would win and reacted to the result with surprise: “What’s going on? What does everyone want?” On 5ch, users cited reasons for chicken’s popularity such as its low price, lower fat content, and the impact of reports linking red meat to cancer risk, sparking a wider discussion about preferences and cooking methods for beef, pork, and chicken.

Matsuko Stunned by Young People’s Favorite Meat — Had Predicted Pork Herself: “What’s Going On? What Does Everyone Want?”

TV personality Matsuko Deluxe (53) appeared on TV Asahi’s “Matsuko & Arihiro’s Temporary Paradise” (Fridays at 8:00 PM), aired on the 18th, and commented on the popularity of different types of meat.

On the show, the hosts talked about the relative popularity of beef, pork, and chicken.

Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

What people said

2AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:13
It's probably the generation that got fed nothing else because it's cheap
101AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:55
Re: #2
Yeah, probably
Their palates got dulled from not eating good food since childhood
13AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:15
Yakitori beats any other meat there is
15AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:16
Re: #13
Yakitori's also easy on the stomach, that's a plus
14AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:16
Drumsticks, breast, tenderloin — all cheap, and there are tons of recipes for them
16AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:17
Because watching Showa-retro exploration videos on YouTube is more fun than watching Peace-kun (the peacock mascot at Omiya Park) do his thing
17AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:17
I'm an old guy, but chicken's my pick — it's the meat I've eaten the most my whole life
18AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:17
I think chicken's gotten pricier in recent years because of bird flu, so there's this weird sense that it's become something premium
19AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:18
It's psychological — they're mammals, so people probably don't want to eat cow or pig. Wouldn't be strange if Japanese people had some historical, hereditary aversion like that
64AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:43
Re: #19
Well, chicken counts as a mammal too if you think about it
20AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:19
For lunch I eat 4 McChickens on their own — 760 yen for four, and that fills me right up
22AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:20
Got stalked by some idiot so I bailed to a new thread. Let's talk meat 👍
23AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:20
Beef and pork are expensive. Beef's basically just for gyudon or burgers at this point
24AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:21
Beef and pork smell. Beef tongue especially is downright insane
25AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:22
This is the effect of those reports saying red meat from mammals is carcinogenic. That's why I try to pick chicken whenever I can
27AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:22
There's no good food in Tokyo anyway. Why do people even live in a place like that
28AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:23
At a typical supermarket, per 100g: chicken 98 yen, pork 198 yen, beef 298 yen.

Makes sense people pick chicken now that everyone's gotten poorer
29AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:24
Pork's not tasty. There's gyudon and KFC but nothing like that for pork
31AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:25
I eat 500 grams of salad chicken (a diet-friendly cooked chicken breast snack) every single day
33AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:26
Kids love karaage more than anything. Of course it'd turn out this way
34AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:27
Pork's fine even if it's from Canada, but chicken and beef aren't really domestic, are they
35AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:27
Liver and gizzard are cheap and tasty too, though I worry about purine content so I only eat them occasionally
36AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:27
Expensive beef is great, but the cheap stuff is tough and kind of meh.
Chicken tastes decent even when it's cheap.
If you're eating the cheap stuff, chicken's the better call.
Maybe that's exactly why it's popular with young people?

Pork feels like it's somewhere in between
37AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:27
Honestly I think chicken's the tastiest.
It even works in mild-flavored dishes like mizutaki (chicken hot pot)
51AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:37
Beef and chicken have a higher rate of you getting a smelly cut, don't they
60AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:41
Re: #51
If you're picking properly, that shouldn't really happen
71AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:45
For me it's pork.
Pork belly especially.

Fried: Beef△ Pork◎ Chicken◎
Grilled: Beef◎ Pork◯ Chicken◎
Simmered: Beef◎ Pork◯ Chicken△
Stir-fried: Beef◯ Pork◎ Chicken△

I'll take objections
73AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:47
Re: #66
And on top of that, of course, chicken's basically a mammal too, right?
83AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:50
Re: #73
Why would that be, lol
91AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:53
Re: #73
"Mammal" means "one that drinks mother's milk" (in English, mammal comes from mamma, meaning breast/mother). Have you ever seen a chicken nurse its young?
77AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:48
Out of those three, pork's the bottom for me too.
Pretty much matches the survey — beef's on top, chicken's a close second, pork feels a notch below.
Tonkatsu's about the only thing I'd specifically crave it for — not that I dislike it, and of course I'll eat it if it's there
88AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:52
Re: #77
There's tonkatsu, shogayaki (ginger pork), and char siu too, so like Matsuko, I'd rank pork number one as well.
Chinese dishes like gyoza are great too
92AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:53
Such a waste not to eat beef while you're young — you're bound to lose your tolerance for beef fat once you get older
99AnonymousSep 20, 2026 00:55
Re: #92
Seriously can't eat it anymore… I wish they'd dry it out more and cut the fat…
Whenever I have wagyu these days I regret it afterward

Background and Key Points of This Topic

Retail prices for beef, pork, and chicken tend to run highest for beef and lowest for chicken, and thread posters cited rough per-100g prices to argue that people are choosing chicken because they’ve gotten poorer. Per-capita chicken consumption in Japan is said to have been rising in recent years, and this survey result fits that trend. There have also been research reports linking red meat consumption to colorectal cancer risk, and some posters said they choose chicken for health reasons. On the other hand, chicken prices themselves have risen since the bird flu outbreaks, so “chicken because it’s cheap” doesn’t fully explain things. Posters in the thread also noted that beef, pork, and chicken each suit different cooking methods, making this less a simple ranking than a topic that splits along personal preference.

*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “[Entertainment] Young People’s Favorite Meat Is “Chicken” — Matsuko Stunned, Had Predicted Pork: “What’s Going On? What Does Everyone Want?”.”

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