日本的身体的主権Japanese Bodily Sovereignty

With winter imminent, we must raise our alert levels to unprecedented heights and confront the coming season. Looking back at 2025, we cannot deny the possibility of a winter where unexpected events occur frequently, as if summarizing a year of intense climate change. While individuals cannot control the climate, that is precisely why we must be more cautious than ever in our daily preparations regarding personal health management—specifically, the extremely delicate yet critical modern task of mood regulation. This is not the outdated goal of merely maintaining health; it is an urgent crisis management task imposed on every human being. The improvement of this survival capability, through trial and error, will be the foundation for surviving the turbulent 2030s.

In this context, the theme I wish to dig deeply into is how people on the Japanese archipelago have long struggled with the season of winter, and how they adjusted to it through a survival strategy historically accumulated as everyday wisdom.

From a global perspective, Japanese life is often discussed and consumed within the context of aesthetic and spiritual minimalism, such as zen or Marie Kondo's tidying. However, while that view might have passed in the relatively peaceful pre-pandemic era, looking at the present and the future, I reject that perspective entirely. The true identity of the protocols built by our ancestors was not emotional aesthetics, but pure bio-engineering to adjust for genetic and geographic conditions. So, where did that purpose lie? In this article, I will explore that lost purpose.

To do so, we must first capture the true identity of the risks modern people face with the highest possible resolution. The representative example is the chronic deficiency of "Vitamin D," primarily generated from sunlight. Recently, depression and mental insufficiency have transcended individual problems to manifest as a human-scale risk, and medical science has long noted Vitamin D deficiency as a hidden primary cause. Vitamin D is not merely a nutrient; it is a substance practically akin to a "steroid hormone" that acts as a command center for serotonin regulation in the brain and immune function.

Here, we must accurately grasp the "specs" of this substance. I say Vitamin D, but a decisive difference exists within it. Broadly speaking, there are two types: "Vitamin D2 (Ergocalciferol)" derived from plant sources like mushrooms, and "Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol)" derived from animal sources like fish and generated in the skin via sunbathing. It may seem like a mere difference in chemical structure, but in the biological system of the human being, clinical data overwhelmingly shows that animal-derived "D3" is far superior to plant-derived D2 in terms of blood concentration maintenance efficiency and bioavailability. In other words, the native format for the human OS is "D3," and other formats may result in conversion losses.

Changing the perspective, the optimal securing and utilization of Vitamin D3, based on individual bodies and environments, serves as a shield for surviving modern society. In short, I believe that looking at a person's awareness of D3 intake serves as an indicator of how they perceive modern society and whether they are prepared to face the turbulent era.

Originally, human beings were designed to generate Vitamin D using a type of cholesterol in the skin as raw material by bathing in ultraviolet rays daily. However, this process—like a plant's "photosynthesis"—is experiencing a serious bug in the modern age. The required sunbathing time varies greatly depending on latitude, season, and skin exposure. For example, while a few minutes to 10 minutes might suffice at noon in summer, generating the same amount in Tokyo's winter might require exposing only the face and hands to direct sunlight for nearly an hour. Even more fatal is the fact that UV-B (Ultraviolet B waves), necessary for Vitamin D generation, does not pass through glass. In other words, sunbathing through a window in a heated, bright room generates not even "1 IU" of Vitamin D. For the majority of modern urban dwellers who fall into the indoor lifestyle category, securing the necessary amount through natural generation alone has entered a phase that is physically impossible; moreover, that natural generation amount itself cannot be said to be sufficient for surviving the modern age.

There is a further point worth looking at: the genetic tendencies seen among people who have lived on the Japanese archipelago. The distribution of variants in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and in the genes that transport and metabolize vitamin D differs from population to population, and research conducted in Japan suggests that the share of people carrying "less effective" types is comparatively high. This means there are structural individual differences in how well the body can use vitamin D synthesized from sunlight. However, an inexplicable paradox exists here. The Japanese archipelago is long from north to south, so climatic conditions change drastically depending on residence.

Specifically, people have lived for thousands of years in the Tohoku, Hokuriku, and Sea of Japan regions, where winter daylight hours are extremely short and the land is locked away by thick snow clouds for long periods. A point to note is that these regions are said to hold many people who retain comparatively strong traces of old genetic features dating from the Jomon period (this does not equal being Jomon people). Unlike the Pacific side or Western Japan like Kyushu, which are warm with abundant sunshine, how did people with "hardware with poor Vitamin D efficiency" survive in harsh environments where they could not acquire sufficient sunlight for nearly half the year?

The concept I propose here is a redefinition of the Japanese idea of teinei na kurashi (丁寧な暮らし), living with care. In modern times, the phrase is often consumed as mere manners, aesthetics, or a moral slogan. However, when we re-examine this from the perspective of biohacking practiced unconsciously by our ancestors, the consistency is spine-chilling. Their lifestyle habits were extremely precise computational processing to forcibly optimize the body (hardware) with poor acquisition efficiency through external supplementation (software). The prime example is Japanese food culture. First, fish eating. Fatty fish such as salmon, saury (sanma), and sardines are among the rare major natural sources of vitamin D3.

Personally, I am fascinated by the fact that salmon and saury have been fish with high catch volumes in the Sea of Japan side of Tohoku and Hokkaido since ancient times. Although catches of salmon and saury have plummeted recently due to climate change and drastic shifts in nature itself, these fish with high D3 content were major nutrient sources for people in these regions since the Jomon period. The fact that people in Tohoku have consumed salmon as a staple food in diverse ways since the Jomon period shows that it made rational sense for them living under severe winter climate conditions. In addition, we cannot overlook the custom in Japan of eating these fish thoroughly, even down to the bones.

Two months ago, when I visited Murakami City in Niigata Prefecture, which possesses a unique salmon culture, I deepened my understanding of it. In this region, where salmon is revered as a kami is sometimes worshipped, over 100 types of food are created from a single salmon, wasting nothing. This indicates that the people of the Tohoku Sea of Japan side, against a genetic background stretching back to the Jomon period, constructed a lifestyle to compensate for the winter lack of D3 by consuming salmon as a staple food through wisdom of living, and transmitted this generation after generation.

Thus, ancestors compensated for their genetic weaknesses with wisdom utilizing the natural environment, but even more surprising is the technology of drying fish and drying food in the sun. This is because the component ergosterol contained in mushrooms like wood ear (kikurage) and shiitake undergoes a chemical change into Vitamin D2 when exposed to ultraviolet rays. The act of deliberately taking the trouble to expose ingredients to the sun is not merely to enhance preservation but is nothing less than an ancient chemical experiment to transform the ingredients themselves into edible sun supplements. And worthy of special mention is the combination of fermented food and eating fish whole, bones and all.

Because Vitamin D is fat-soluble, it has the property of being difficult to absorb on its own. However, by regulating the intestinal environment with Japanese fermented foods like miso, pickles, and natto, and promoting bile secretion, the absorption rate improves dramatically. In particular, Vitamin K2, abundantly found in natto, is a critical partner that exerts a synergistic effect with Vitamin D3; K2 plays the role of guiding the calcium that Vitamin D has brought into the blood correctly to the bones rather than depositing it in the blood vessels (arteriosclerosis). The traditional Japanese breakfast of eating small fish boiled and dried whole (niboshi), consumed alongside fermented foods like natto and miso soup, was not merely a minimalist dietary method, but was actually a perfect nutritional protocol highly perfected long ago to prevent bone fragility and immune decline due to lack of sunlight. It was for survival.

In short, the ancestors' teinei na kurashi was a high-level survival strategy to normalize their own life-support functions under limited resources and extreme environments, and is fundamentally different from the aesthetics of modern people. I perceive that the time has arrived to redefine and reconstruct all concepts of Japanese culture not as forms of aesthetics, but as essential human survival strategies. Because the consumption of Japanese culture premised on aesthetics is completely useless from the perspective of survival strategy, and I believe we cannot survive the next generation if we cling to such things. In fact, not only the living with care we look at here but the essence of zen and tidying was also originally a survival strategy for our ancestors, not aesthetics. The pioneers who packaged it like aesthetics and sold it in an easy-to-understand manner could be said to be D. T. Suzuki for zen, Nyoichi Sakurazawa (known abroad as George Ohsawa) for macrobiotics, and Marie Kondo, who packaged tidying as a lifestyle trend hitching a ride on the tide of globalism. But what is important is whether you can sense the strong will of survival at the essence.

However, living in the modern age, we have lost sight of that essential meaning, discarding most of the habits accumulated by ancestors as mere "troublesome tasks," and abandoning the historical wisdom that is our true asset. As a result, the vulnerability of the hardware called the body has been exposed, and the mind, which is the human OS, is causing a system down called mental insufficiency. This seems to be the current state of modern society and a serious problem that all of humanity must face, but since it is not a problem for Japanese people alone, it starts with staring at the fact that the same thing has happened in your own world.

Here, readers may wonder why the abundant wisdom born of such adaptation and adjustment was let go. In fact, the breakfast described above has almost vanished from Japanese tables today. Seen from that perspective, the habit of strengthening the bones through dietary wisdom collapsed after the war. Above all, the trigger was the spread of daily wheat and dairy consumption. Japan had no daily habit of eating wheat or dairy, and for many people the body was not adapted to them.

Actually, currently, the possibility that this daily intake of dairy products is a contributing factor in the rising rate of breast cancer in Japan is frequently pointed out, and conscientious doctors individually advise women to refrain from dairy intake. Also, in Japan's aging society, it has become frequent for the elderly demographic to take dairy products, especially calcium supplements, to maintain bones, but this is counterproductive and is known globally to rather increase the risk of osteoporosis. To begin with, as mentioned before, Vitamin D and Magnesium are essential for bone formation, and merely taking calcium alone only results in deposition and reverses the effect.

Based on these perspectives, we can see that the drastic change in postwar Japanese eating habits lies at the root of today's malfunctions. The survival wisdom accumulated in history up to the prewar period was largely severed by the defeat in World War II, and when a completely new diet that the body had not adapted to poured in, the root of today's malfunctions was formed. The reason lay in the structure of international food policy at the time. As for the flow, immediately after the defeat, Japan was in a state of starvation, and initially, wheat and skim milk were sent as "Government and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA)" funds from the perspective of humanitarian aid and prevention of communization. However, this flow begins to change drastically.

During the war, the US had established a wheat production increase system for supply to Europe, but when the war ended and European agriculture recovered, US wheat lost its destination, and combined with historical bumper crops, they came to hold huge surplus inventory. Since the storage fees for this inventory alone were pressing the national budget, the "PL480 Law (Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act)" was enacted under the Eisenhower administration. At this time, a strategy was taken to dispose of this inventory under the guise of "Aid to Developing Countries." in 1954, although Japan had already escaped the food crisis and economic crisis and was achieving growth, Japan, in the position of a defeated nation, had no choice but to accept the MSA Agreement from the US side, and within this framework, accepted large amounts of surplus wheat despite it being unnecessary.

Although rarely noted, the problem was that at this time a campaign was carried out not just to circulate wheat but to transform eating habits themselves, offering a new way of eating in place of the old one. This is symbolized by the "nutrition guidance cars" (kitchen cars), funded by a wheat trade association, touring all over Japan with messages such as "Rice makes you stupid" and "Bread is modern and nutritious," but the main audience was children. In this era the package of "bread and milk" was standardized, full school lunches were promoted, the school lunch system appeared, and children grew used, from a young age, to the taste of bread and milk.

As a result, post-war children on a national scale came to consume wheat (gluten) and dairy products (casein), which had historically hardly been consumed in Japan, on a daily basis. However, in regions with a long history of eating grain and dairy, many people carry genetic tolerance to them, while in Japan that history is short and many people lack tolerance to gluten and casein. As a result, the intestinal environment of many people was badly disrupted, and with the spread of highly addictive gluten dependence, society's health came to carry serious problems that last to this day.

In other words, for many people in Japan, gluten-free and casein-free are not trends but actions necessary for survival. I position them as a radical act of escape from the postwar structure of food. Therefore, I have practiced an almost complete gluten-free and casein-free life for 7 years.

Based on these, let me talk about myself. I was born and raised in Osaka and have lived basically in big cities like Tokyo and London. However, tracing my roots, my maternal grandfather was from a farming village in Akita known as snow country, my grandmother was from a remote island in the warm Seto Inland Sea, and my paternal grandmother was from the coastal Iwami region of Shimane; therefore, memories of "Snow Country" and the "Sea of Japan side" are clearly and strongly carved into my genes, intersected by memories of the "Seto Inland Sea" adjusting that excessive balance.

Despite that memory, the modern age is a world homogenized by globalism, making it possible for us to live with similar meals and similar life rhythms wherever we are. However, that is precisely why we must face the fact: "Where do I live now, and whose blood do I carry?" The hardware that is my body, originally adapted to a cold environment with little sunlight, craves at a genetic level to consume much fish and fermented food and live strictly following the rhythm of nature.

But needless to say, nothing is more difficult than realizing this life in modern society. Not limited to me, despite each individual seeking different lives, the majority work in offices blocked from sunlight and live lives distant from traditional dietary habits. As a result, this causes a fatal mismatch between genes and environment, and I feel there is no immediate solution to this balance collapse. I personally analyze that the unexplained malfunctions and mood swings that are global problems for modern people are highly likely caused by this mismatch between the OS (modern life) and the hardware (the body). Hence, going to the hospital does not cure it.

That is why I believe we should update the concept of teinei na kurashi from aesthetics to practical "Function." Because with cultural application based on aesthetics or beauty consciousness, your malfunction will not improve at all. This is my strong awareness of the problem. It is the implementation of the most rational algorithm to normalize one's own life-support functions, and becomes a critical power forming the basis of adjustments different for each individual.

In modern times, grilling fish every day, making dried fish from scratch, and preparing fermented foods is not realistic, so there is no need to hesitate to borrow the power of science, and it is most effective for each person to start within the range they can do daily. For me, actively taking high-quality Vitamin D3 supplements is essential, and especially after the autumnal equinox when daylight hours shorten, I increase the intake amount and artificially maintain blood concentration to personally manage the risk of "Winter Depression." Actually, until before, I suffered from chronic mental illness not limited to this winter depression, but recently I have finally become able to manage my mental state.

Also, to maximize this effect, I avoid meals that cause internal inflammation, and basically do not consume gluten, casein, refined sugars, etc. This is less a matter of mood and more because I possess the homozygous variant (+/+) in the "Vitamin D Receptor (VDR)" of a type that is common in Japan and works less effectively. This means the power to efficiently utilize Vitamin D in the body is fragile.

Furthermore, for modern people, light control to regulate the Circadian Rhythm is also important. A basic life of opening windows during the day to bathe in direct sunlight even for a few minutes, and cutting blue light and dimming lights at night. This is a mandatory environment setting for us living in the artificial caves called cities, and a prerequisite for survival strategy; while it is considerably difficult in modern society, I am also incorporating it little by little. Then recently, I came to think that from such a new angle, there is a possibility to practically sublimate the aesthetics of shadows that Japan has nurtured and create an opportunity to improve people's lives. By living with care, new ideas spring forth. The keyword is to deny the conventional stance and perspective of solving things with mere aesthetics, and convert it into a form that can be practically incorporated into one's own life and existence.

Thus, the living with care proposed here is by no means weak spiritualism or nostalgia. It is wisdom for us, who are troubled in common by the bugs of the modern world, to survive in a more drastically changing climate and unnatural urban life by coolly understanding the hardware called our own body and continuing to implement optimal software—in other words, it is a high-resolution survival strategy itself. To do that, actually, we must update our own thinking (OS) first of all. If this update of thinking is not done, the wisdom of Japanese culture will again be recuperated into trends as mere aesthetics/beauty consciousness, but while that may become a force for the dopamine world giving self-satisfaction, it will not become a force that truly saves people.

In the age of personalization, there is no need to mimic the ideal life advocated by someone else. However, to look strictly at one's own genetic risks from multiple angles, continue introspection, hybrid-mix modern technology and ancient wisdom, and make one's own mind and body "Function Correctly." This is nothing less than the recovery of bodily sovereignty beyond the framework of mere health management. That should be the only key to surviving this severe winter, and above all, the frenzied modern age.

To summarize: my way of thinking is that the most radical and anarchic act in the modern age is "To take back your own health by yourself."