Abstract

Japan has undergone dietary transition and adopted Westernization in their dietary practices in the contemporary era. However, rural parts of Japan still preserve traditional foodways characterized by extensive use of fermentation products and consumption of fresh produce in contrast to increasing consumption of animal products and processed foods in the urban areas. The present study utilizes a translated Food Choice Questionnaire (FQC) tailored to the Japanese population, and qualitative data from field study to investigate the underlying motivations behind food consumption of the Japanese population residing in the rural area of Nagasaki city. In the preliminary statistical analysis, I performed k-means clustering on the FCQ and revealed four clusters of consumers: 1) health-focused, 2) comfort-focused, 3) demanding, and 4) indifferent. For future directions, I aim to combine results from the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and perform linear regression to explore the association between dietary patterns and food choice motives.

In the field