We surveyed the current status of education regarding sweet bean paste and Japanese confectionery using sweet bean paste at universities having registered dietitians, nutritionists, and home economics teachers, who are expected to be responsible for passing on Japanese food culture to the next generation.
As a result, 94.6％, 81.3％, and 61.6％ of the teachers explained in their lectures the “types of beans used to make bean paste”, “types of bean paste (Tsubuan, Koshian, Sarashian)”, and “differences between Nama-koshian, Sarashian, and Nerian (with or without drying or kneading operations)”, respectively. In the practical training, 86.9％ used “commercial kneaded bean paste”, and 36.5％ and 17.5％ of the respondents prepared sweet bean paste “from beans” and “from Sarashian”, respectively. The most common reason for not preparing sweet bean paste from beans was the ‘lack of time dedicated to practical training’ (88.5％). 94.3％ of universities conducted practical training in Japanese confectionery using sweet bean paste, and an average of 2.5 ± 1.9 types of Japanese confectioneries were prepared.
The most important things to be aware of in practical training for sweet bean paste and Japanese confectionery using sweet bean paste were 70.5％ of “passing on Japanese food culture”, 61.4％ of “making Japanese confectionery using bean paste”, and 28.8％ of “being able to make bean paste”.
Therefore, it was determined that in order to “pass on the Japanese food culture”, it is necessary to transform the limited time available for sweet bean paste practice into a more in-depth learning opportunity.
