What drives perception of decline in seafood culture?: The mediating role of memory in local coastal cuisine in Japan.

Amid globalization and accompanying shifts in dietary habits, local food cultures continue to decline in both consumption quantity and quality. This study examines the relationships among seafood consumption habits, food-related memory, and perceptions of the decline in traditional local cuisine, focusing on both at-home and out-of-home dining contexts. Integrating experiential memory theory with the concept of declining locality, we propose a "habit-memory-framing" framework to examine the interplay among dietary habits, food-related memory, and cultural perception. Drawing on online survey data from 840 respondents, we conduct multiple regression and mediation analyses to investigate the underlying mechanisms. The results indicate that seafood consumption habits indirectly influence perceptions of cultural decline via food-related memory while exerting a direct negative effect on perceptions of decline in seafood culture, forming a dual-path structure. This implies that dietary habits attenuate the direct perception of cultural decline at the behavioral level and enhance individuals' sensitivity to cultural change through memory-based cognitive mechanisms. Comparisons between at-home dining and out-of-home dining contexts reveal that the home setting (or at-home dining) plays a more prominent role in shaping food-related memory than out-of-home dining. Further analysis identifies price, time constraints, and product availability as factors affecting seafood consumption habits. These findings suggest that changes in local food culture are shaped not only by behavioral patterns but also by emotional experiences and cognitive mechanisms. By integrating consumption habits and food-related memory, this study provides new empirical insights into the dynamics of food culture change, offering implications for policy and practice.