In recent years, the number of children who cannot masticate well has increased and needed more mastication education as a countermeasure. In elementary and junior high schools across Japan, mastication education is mainly conducted during Tooth and Mouth Health Week in June, based on the annual dietary education plan as “Shokuiku”. However, children, who have problems with mastication, need continuous mastication education and mastication practice on the benefits of mastication. Therefore, we reconstructed the annual dietary education plan so that mastication education throughout the year, and conducted mastication education by using Japanese cuisines “Washoku” that contain many ingredients to masticate staple foods and side dishes in good balance. The target population was 486 students in grades 2-6 of elementary school, and the period was from June 2019 to February 2020. Before and after the education, self-administered questionnaires were surveyed children about the necessity of mastication, their sense of health, and their food preferences, utilizing a set meal of grilled fish, pizza, hamburger, and ramen as specific examples. As a result, the number of children who recognized grilled fish as the dish that requires the most mastication (p<0.001), that looks healthy (p<0.05), and that would like to eat the most (p<0.05) increased. Mastication practice in school lunches utilizing mainly Japanese cuisines throughout the year helped children to understand the connection between masticating Japanese cuisines well and being health, and to change their preference for Japanese cuisines like grilled fish.