Was about to eat a “normal” sized one for the first time in years and was wondering whether the lack of fibre due to peeling off the skin or the pesticides due to not was going to kill me, and it suddenly occured to me that peeling a small apple is an awful lot more difficult than peeling a nice melon-sized Fuji. Japanese virtually always peel their fruit, if the look of shock on my in-laws’ faces when I ate one without is anything to go by.
The other possible reason that springs to mind is the fact that fruit is often given as a gift in Japan, so the larger, more impressive and more expensive the better- hence also the baskets of fruit that cost three times as much as buying each piece of fruit seperately (the typical Japanese opposite of bulk discount).
More of this kind of stuff in Japanese Food and Drink Explained page and posts.
Japan Explained FASAQ 