More than half of Japan's schoolchildren have breakfast alone or without the presence of adults, and only about a third eat supper with their whole family.

An increasing number of children say they prefer to eat alone, they are not hungry before meals and they do not enjoy eating. Many believe the most enjoyable meal of the day is school lunch.

These are some of the findings of a 1999 survey on eating habits that covered 2,067 children in the fifth and sixth grades at 18 elementary schools throughout the country. The survey was jointly conducted by NHK and Miyuki Adachi, a professor of food ecology at Kagawa Nutrition University.