Dairy products were prepared in ancient Japan, but after an interruption, the regular use of milk and dairy products began once again only after the Meiji era. However, during the Muromachi period, Nanban trade started in Nagasaki under Christian influence; during the Edo era, a Dutch trading post was established and trade with foreign countries began. Analysis of the subsequent written records of foreign and domestic travelers and of Nagasaki residents describe the use of goats’ milk and dairy products. During the late Muromachi period, goats and cattle were kept in Jesuit friaries and hospitals, and it is possible that milk was consumed. Records reveal that during the Edo period, goats and cattle were raised near the Dutch trading post and on the outskirts of Nagasaki. Milk was extracted and onsumed by the Dutch and Japanese, and dairy products, such as butter, were used for food and medicine by the Japanese.

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This paper aims to analyze the process of the introduction of discourses on lactic acid bacteria therapy in Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This period is considered to be “the era of the predisposition” (Taishitsu no jidai), through which health maintenance became a daily cultural activity in Japanese cities. It is one of the conditions that promoted the development of research and the consumption of lactic acid bacteria products. Medical theory on lactic acid bacteria originated at the Pasteur Institute of France. In the second half of the 19thcentury, developing research on lactic acid fermentation by Louis Pasteur and Émile Duclaux, Élie Metchnikoff proposed the use of lactic acid bacteria and soured milk in the treatment of intestinal disorders. He found a cause of these disorders in the toxicity derived from the physiological complexity of the human body. As his theory aims at the prolongation of life through immunological and zoological knowledge, he considers this theory to be an advancement of civilized culture. Japanese politicians applied this advancement to their country by importing the works of Metchnikoff, because they considered that the development of the dairy industry was essential for modernization. At the same time, Japanese pharmacies imported and developed lactic acid bacteria drugs. This allowed for daily medicinal consumption of these bacteria in Japan.

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