An education board in western Japan will end observation of mokushoku – or silent eating – but some parents said the move was premature

After two years of eating in near-monastic silence, children in Japan have been given permission to chat to their classmates over lunch, as Covid cases in the country continue to fall.

Throughout the pandemic, primary and middle school classrooms have reverberated to the sound of cutlery meeting crockery and, in some cases, piped music, but the young diners have been silenced as part of efforts to prevent the spread of the virus.