Getting kids to eat their vegetables is not easy. And in fast-paced urban Japan, where both parents usually work and the landscape is dominated by convenience stores overflowing with junk food, the chore is ever more difficult.
Yet the unbalanced diet consumed by many people, especially children, is exacting a health toll and sounding alarm bells.
Worried authorities fear that if they can't improve the situation on the home front by getting parents to act as proper dietary role models, their last line of defense must be the school lunch.