Deep fried foods

Are deep fried foods like tempura and tonkatsu really considered "Japanese" foods?

Of course they are!

I think 500 years as part of the food culture is long enough to be considered Japanese...

Oh, okay. I guess I just always thought of deep fried foods as very unhealthy (even vegetable tempura). But I could be wrong. And I know the Japanese are well known for having a very healthy diet.

I asked on another thread, but never got a response, so I was still curious to know how often families typically cook deep fried foods. Once a week? Twice a week? Once every 2 weeks? Once a month? Or much less? Thanks for any replies!

There are aspects of the Japanese diet that are not healthy- the main one being that it can be very high in sodium, another being that meat that is fairly high in fat is favoured over lean meat.

Generally speaking Japanese food is healthy, but that doesn't mean you can assume that if a a food is Japanese, it must therefore be extremely healthy, and if it's not healthy, therefore it's not Japanese! Things like tempura, karaage and gyuudon would fall at the less healthy end of the scale as far as Japanese food goes, but eaten in moderation they would be fine.

Tenpura comes from Latin Temppora. Also refer to Satsuma Age(Kagoshima fry) Tonkatsu comes from ton=pig & cutlet. Both are introduced to Japan by the early Portuguese missionaries.
Japan is experiencing the obesity problems as any other countries due to the cheap western fast invasions, fatty beef, etc. It used to be that eating fried foods/fatty meats was a rare occasion and the people were skinny working hard in the rice fields, etc. Being fat was equated to be wealthy as in China. If people exercise, anything in moderation is fine.

Food definitely differs depending on the region and family makeup but on the whole, I would guess that Japanese eat fried foods as much or more than people in other countries, probably 1-3 times/week on average.

There are so many fried foods that are normal menu items: fried chicken (karaage, tatsuta age), fried fish (sakana fry), fried vegetables (tempura), fried tofu (age dashi).

That said, fried foods aren't necessarily unhealthy. That depends on how and what you fry.

Japan's recent health problems are more related to lifestyle changes, the rise of the convenience store, expanded fast food options, and the rapidly growing B-rank food culture.