This unique manner of eating in Japan is unusual in the world, even in the same cultural area where people use chopsticks for eating, such as China, Korea, and other South East Asian countries, where people recuse themselves from holding a plate to eat something because they think such manners are similar to what homeless people do on the street.
同じ箸文化圏の中国、韓国、東南アジアでは、皿を持って食べる行為を「路上生活者ようだ」として忌避されており、世界でも日本の食事作法は珍しい。