Standing While Eating

Abstract

Broadcast Transcript: Standing on the Ginza, Tokyo's primo shopping zone, one sees the expected: people in a hurry to shop until they drop, and the unexpected: people eating standing up at the counters of a McDonald's franchise. Why is this unexpected? Because it bucks some 2,000 years of Japanese tradition. For millennia, Japan's complicated rules of etiquette have codified what is done and what is not done when it comes to lunch. In fact, back in the 8th Century, pouring wine while standing was considered such a no-no that suicide was recommended. Happily, eating on one's feet is no longer such a fatal social gaffe. With the Japanese consuming 15,000 tons of Idaho potatoes a month at the Golden Arches, McDonald's has made it a lot more stand up to stand up and eat in Japan.