This study was undertaken to examine the knowledge about food culture and intakes of traditional food in Korean and Japanese elementary school students. In 2012 and 2013, a total of 265 students were surveyed, consisting of 73 Korean fifth graders and 192 Japanese sixth graders. The questionnaire comprised of queries on general items, the recognition and sampling of traditional and celebration foods, the knowledge about the partner country's food culture, and the frequency of consuming the partner country's foods. As a result of this study, the frequency of consuming their own country's traditional foods for Korean children (3.1 out of 5.0 points) and Japanese children (3.2 out of 5.0 points) was similar to each other. Japanese children reported to eat Korean foods (2.9 points) more frequently than those of Korean children to eat Japanese foods (2.4 out of 5.0 points) (p<0.001). However, the Korean children reported to have more experience on given typical Japanese foods than Japanese children reported about Korean foods. Further studies are needed for the perception on traditional foods in Korean and Japanese children. The results of this study can be used as a basic data to succeed and develop traditional food cultures.

The purpose of the study w3s to investigate the consumption pattern of the Korean traditional foods of the elementary schoolchildren living in urban and rural area. For the investigation, 373 fifth-grade elementary schoolchildren in Incheon and Gangwhado were surveyed by a questionnaire and the data were analyzed by the SPSS 10.0 program. As for the frequency to take the Korean traditional foods, bab and kimchi are taken almost everyday, and gug, jjigae, jorim, gui, namul are taken frequently. And juk, jeongol, jeon, sanjeog, jutgal, hangwa and umryo were shown to be taken occasionally. There were statistical differences in the frequencies of the Korean traditional food consumption by the residence and the gender. The students in urban area take hinbab, jabgokbab, hobakjuk deonjanggug, sangsunjorim, jangiorim more frequently than the students in rural area. The students in rural area take mandu, kuksoo, yeongunjorim and kongiorim more frequently than the students in urban area Female students take sangsunjorim, jangiorim, sangsungui, bulgogi, sangsunjeon, hobakjeon, sukchae, jutgal and oiji more frequently than male students. Most of the schoolchildren answered that in the future they would like to take the traditional foods more frequently than now. There was statistical difference by the gender. As for the food such as bibimbab, gug, jjigae, jeon, namul and jang-aji, female students responded to take more frequently than male students. The 39.1% of them responded that the taste is the point to be most improved in the future. But there was no statistical difference by gender and the residence In order to make the taste of traditional food more attractive to modem people, the 37.8% of them replied it does not need to change the traditional preparation method. However, similar percentage of the schoolchildren(35.7%) answered it is needed to change partly the traditional preparation method. As for the effect of traditional foods on health, the 68.4% of schoolchildren thought that the our traditional foods are healthier than western foods.