We here outlined our study on the variations in intake of nutrients based on four season 7 consecutive day weighed diet records (WDRs) from 80 Japanese female dietitians in 1996 - 1997. Furthermore, we reviewed Japanese, Korean and international articles investigating variability in consumption of foods as well as nutrients. The relative contributions of variation for all nutrients by person were greater than those by day, week and season. Within individual variances were greater than that between individual variances, being generally observed in Korea and in the world. The ratios of within- vs. between-individual variations ranged from 1.3-26.9 in our study, the ratios being greatest in Korean, followed by Japanese and western people. Based on within individual coefficients of variation, minimal days necessary for estimating nutrient consumption per person within 10％ (20％) of the true mean with 95％ confidence intervals were estimated. They ranged from 10-35 (3-9) days for energy and major nutrients and 15-640(4-160) days for micro-nutrients. Two Japanese studies reported that the ratios for foods were as a whole greater than those for nutrients, except for cereals, rice and milk. (J community Nutrition 5(2) : 72-82,2003).