Nutrition as National Defense: Japan's Imperial Government Institute for Nutrition, 1920–1940

This article explores the early history of nutrition science and nutritional activism in Japan, 1920–40, focusing on the role of the Imperial Government Institute for Nutrition (IGIN). I argue that the IGIN, the world's first government-sponsored nutrition institute, was a manifestation and key instrument of Japan's state-led program of national nutrition as civilization and national defense. The IGIN's successes in science and dietary reform were viewed as a triumph, an indication that Japan had surpassed the West in the most fundamentally modern and rational of pursuits, science—and specifically nutrition science, a critical technology of nation building.