In Japan, school lunch means a regular meal, not one that harms your health. The food is grown locally and almost never frozen. There's no mystery behind the meat. From time to time, parents even call up with an unusual question: Can they get the recipes?

"Parents hear their kids talking about what they had for lunch," said Tatsuji Shino, the principal of Umejima Elementary School in Adachi Ward, Tokyo, "and kids ask them to re-create the meals at home."

Japan takes seriously both its food and its health and, as a result, school lunches are a point of national pride — not a source of dismay. As other countries, including the United States, struggle to design school meals that are healthy, tasty and affordable, Japan has all but solved the puzzle, using a system that officials here describe as utterly common sense.