As the sustainability imperative looms, mainstream educational research in the English-speaking world continues a long tradition of failing to see food as integral to education. Japan's tradition of "Shokuiku" (food education) stands in stark contrast, providing an external reference point to direct critical attention on Anglo-American school food philosophies, policy, and practice. This article analyses "Shokuiku," tracing the genealogy of Japan's 2005 Basic Law on "Shokuiku," a landmark education policy that shifted the 1954 School Lunch Act away from the scientific and nutritional discourses of the mid-20th century and back to Japan's school food cultural traditions. While still teaching nutrition, Japan's "Shokuiku" emerges as distinctive in its broader goals of interdependence, gratitude towards nature, emphasis on culture, and awareness of relations between production, consumption, and sustainability. From a pragmatic perspective, "Shokuiku" may offer new ways to combat rising obesity worldwide, lessen meat consumption, and reduce humanity's unsustainable ecological footprint.