I’m not talking about the “typical” junk food (like KFC or McDonalds), instead it’s more on certain aspects of Japanese cuisine being carb heavy or features fried items such as: ramen, agepan, karage, tempura, gyudon, tonkatsu, yakitori, etc. I mean, can ramen or gyudon bowls still be deemed “fast food” even though they appear ‘healthier’ than American fast food.
I work in schools. About 20 years ago they banned soda sales at school, so they removed all of the carbonated beverages from the vending machine and replaced them with non-carbonated beverages with as much or more sugar.
I dont think thats an issue of soda getting to much bad press though, its more that other highly processed and sugary drinks didn’t get the bad press as well.