page_title: Horse meat
section_title: Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Horse meat / In various countries / Asia-Pacific / Japan
caption_attribution_description: English: Horse meat Sashimi in Japan.
context_page_description: Horse meat forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many countries, particularly in Europe, South America and Asia. The eight countries which consume the most horse meat consume about 4.7 million horses a year. For the majority of humanity's early existence, wild horses were hunted as a source of protein.
context_section_description: In Japanese cuisine, raw horse meat is called sakura (桜) or sakuraniku (桜肉, sakura means "cherry blossom", niku means "meat") because of its pink color. It can be served raw as sashimi in thin slices dipped in soy sauce, often with ginger and onions added. In this case, it is called basashi (馬刺し). Basashi is popular in some regions of Japan and is often served at izakaya bars. Fat, typically from the neck, is also found as basashi, though it is white, not pink. Horse meat is also sometimes found on menus for yakiniku (a type of barbecue), where it is called baniku (馬肉, literally "horse meat") or bagushi (馬串, "skewered horse"); thin slices of raw horse meat are sometimes served wrapped in a shiso leaf. Kumamoto, Nagano, and Ōita are famous for basashi, and it is common in the Tōhoku region, as well. Some types of canned "corned meat" in Japan include horse as one of the ingredients.
  Aside from raising local draft horses for meat, Japan imports living horses (from Canada) and meat from several countries — the five largest horse meat exporters to Japan are Canada, Mexico, Italy, Argentina, and Brazil.
caption: Basashi from Kumamoto
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