Tom Bridgeland writes:  
As I mentioned in a post yesterday, the Japanese for many years,
centuries,
followed a "vegetarian" diet for religious reasons. But there were so
many exceptions, fish were ok, and birds, and rabbits (considered as
birds, I have heard) and when they were sick, etc. etc. Basically they
only refused to eat large mammals, and even then they continued to eat
whales.


Note, that none of these animals (fish, birds, rabbits or whales) take
up much square footage land-wise.  Religion aside, Japan is very small
and there isn't enough room to cultivate large animals for food.  They
have a long history of invading China simply for the extra space.  At
this point in time, about 80% of their rice is imported.  Birds and fish
don't use up any valuable real estate.

Fawn