Abstract: Japan is one of the most developed countries in food and nutrition education in the world. Since the promulgation of The Basic Act on Shokuiku in 2005, The Basic Plan for Promotion of Shokuiku is devised and implemented every five years in Japan, which continuously stimulates the all-round development of food the and nutrition system. It has become an important national policy that deeply affects the lifestyle, moral values and behavior of the Japanese population as well as local economic development. The Basic Plan for Promotion of Shokuiku has been formulated and implemented for four phases, and the overall objectives and key work of each plan are different. In general, the first two phases put more emphasis on deepening the national attention to food and nutrition education, popularizing the basic dietary knowledge, and laying a foundation for “educating people with food”. The third phase paid more attention to the important role of food and nutrition education in promoting economic development and cultural inheritance, hoping to realize “building a nation on food”. On this basis, the fourth phase proposes to build a sustainable development of digital food and nutrition education. The Basic Plan for Promotion of Shokuiku has the characteristics of emphasizing legal protection, implementing management by objectives, emphasizing curriculum system construction, and mobilizing various social resources, which has important reference value for the development of food and nutrition education in China. However, it is also faced with practical challenges such as complex influencing factors and the failure to meet some target values on time, which reflects the long-term and complexity of the construction of food and nutrition education system.

Key words: Japan, food and nutrition education, The Basic Act on Shokuiku, The Basic Plan for Promotion of Shokuiku, educating people with food, building a nation on food