page_title: Horse meat
section_title: Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Horse meat / In various countries / Asia-Pacific / Japan
caption_attribution_description: English: Sakura nabe (horse meat hot pot) 日本語: 桜鍋Sakura nabe
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: Sakura nabe, horse meat for the hot pot
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D90", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2009:02:21 12:32:07", "Image ExifOffset": "184", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/25", "EXIF FNumber": "7/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:02:20 23:01:22", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:02:20 23:01:22", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "290241/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "1", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "50", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "75", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}