This article was originally published in August 2003.

Raised to become choice cuts of meat, a privileged group of Japanese cows enjoy the high-life to the very end.

With sirloin steaks and filets costing more than 10,000 yen per serving, it goes without saying that Matsuzaka beef is Japan’s No. 1 meat brand. Succulent and marbled with fat, the meat is the result of painstaking care and feeding by dedicated ranchers. Until the day they become choice cuts of beef, these cows lead lives of absolute luxury. With two meals a day, naptime, and massages in private stalls, they’re pampered like princesses. 

A layperson might expect cattle to be fed on hay. But according to Takeji Morimoto, whose family has been raising Matsuzaka cows for three generations, hay is problematic. It’s full of vitamins and nutrients, and that ruins the marbling of the meat. The solution is rice straw. It provides just enough vitamins while promoting marbling and aiding digestion of hard-to-chew mixed feed. 

“The more good rice straw they eat, the better meat they make,” says Morimoto, who cares for 20 cattle. 

Most beef cattle are raised for one-and-a-half to two years. At age seven to eight months old, Matsuzaka cattle are selected for fattening up over a period of three years. They put on weight steadily, and for that extra layer of subcutaneous fat, the ranchers ply them with beer in the autumn. “It stimulates their appetites and improves the quality of the meat,” explains Morimoto. “Cows eat less during the hot summer months and recover their appetites in the fall, just like humans do. We give each a big jug of it in the evenings. It’s like a nightcap.” 

Matsuzaka cows are heifers, or virgin cows, belonging to a Japanese breed known as Tajima. They are raised in a village called Iinan near Matsuzaka, a city located roughly in the centre of the Japanese archipelago. A lush valley dotted with terraced rice paddies, the climate here is mild and fresh water bubbles up in mountain springs. It’s an ideal cattle-rearing environment. With no flat land available to put the cows out to pasture, outside of their sunbathing sessions these cows spend all day in barns, relaxing in their private stalls. 

Massages are essential for improving blood circulation in the skin and to distribute the subcutaneous fat evenly. An expression of bliss washed over a three-year-old cow named Chizuko as she received a full-body massage with shochu, a distilled white liquor. So pass the days of Japan’s high-life heifers.

Text: Kyoko Tsukada / Photo: Tsukasa Furusato