Even today, most of the "milk" in Japan is soymilk, eaten as tofu. The lactic sort, from cows, may be steadily growing in popularity, but consumption per person is still only around a liter a week, according to government data issued last year.

Even this, though, represents a huge increase in a country that until 50 years ago had virtually no tradition of drinking milk at all -- but which now has a dairy herd some 1.7 million strong.

Though the finds are few, archaeological evidence suggests that domesticated cattle may have been kept during the period of the Yayoi Pottery Culture (300 B.C.-A.D. 300). After that, their next appearance on Japan's stage seems to have been a walk-on part in 1727, when Shogun Yoshimune is known to have imported three white cows that were kept in Chiba, seemingly as novelties for the aristocracy's amusement.