Our Genes Don’t Match Your Culture
Our Genes Don’t Match Your Culture
Japanese Narratives about the Origins of Type 2 Diabetes
Chapter 3 relies on data from in-depth interviews with clinicians and members of the general public, participant observation, and a review of Japanese popular intellectual literature to examine narratives about the origins of diabetes in Japan. It argues that the most pervasive Japanese narratives emphasize the particularity of diabetes risk to Japanese bodies. This narrative implies that illness arises from a disconnect between Japanese bodies and non-Japanese food culture. The road to health is a return to an imagined traditional Japanese lifestyle that has been lost to globalization and westernization. Rather than stressing individual responsibility and temptation, dominant Japanese narratives stress a shared struggle against outside forces.
Keywords: Narratives, Popular health literature, Risk, Globalization, Food culture, Primordial past, Nihonjinron
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