Food of Japan
71 traditional dishes · Asia
Cities & regions of Japan
Miso Soup
Everyday dashi broth seasoned with fermented soybean paste.
Mochi
Chewy pounded-rice cakes, sweet or savoury, soft and stretchy.
Negitoro Gunkan Maki
Rooted in Japan, Negitoro Gunkan Maki is a rice dish enjoyed for generations.
Onigiri
Hand-pressed rice balls wrapped in nori with a savoury centre.
Taiyaki
Fish-shaped cakes filled with sweet red bean.
Tanuki Soba
Tanuki Soba is a Japanese noodle dish with chilled soba and crispy tempura bits, dipped in a sweetened soy sauce and eaten at train station counters across Japan.
Akumaki
Pink-and-cream spiral kuzu-starch jelly sweet from Tōhoku, where Morioka and Akita wagashi counters still slice it into coin-shaped rounds.
Buri Daikon
Buri Daikon is a beloved fish dish, traditional to Japan.
Kamikaze
A bracing equal-parts cocktail of vodka, triple sec, and lime juice — a sour-family drink with Pacific War origins, served straight up in a chilled glass with a sugared rim.
Monjayaki
Monjayaki counts among the traditional food of Japan, a snack locals hold dear.
Ochazuke
Rice topped with savoury morsels and doused in tea.
Shirataki Noodles
Rooted in Japan, Shirataki Noodles is a noodle dish enjoyed for generations.
Tobiko
Hailing from Japan, Tobiko is a much-loved fish roe.
Habutae Mochi
Habutae Mochi counts among the traditional food of Japan, a dessert locals hold dear.
Ikinari Dango
Hand-held grilled rice dumplings on bamboo skewers, brushed with sweet soy glaze — a Japanese festival and hanami snack sold from roadside stalls and eaten on the spot.
Imagawayaki
Round Japanese wheel-cake cooked in a heavy cast-iron clam mould, filled with sweet red bean paste and sold at shrine approaches and matsuri stalls.
Kohada Nigiri Sushi
Kohada Nigiri Sushi counts among the traditional food of Japan, a rice dish locals hold dear.
Shirasu Don
Shirasu don is a Japanese rice bowl topped with tiny boiled whitebait, prized for its delicate briny flavour and best eaten fresh near fishing ports like Shizuoka.
Yakizakana
Yakizakana counts among the traditional food of Japan, a fish dish locals hold dear.
Katsu Karē
Rooted in Japan, Katsu Karē is a meat dish enjoyed for generations.
Kusa Mochi
Kusa mochi is Japanese mugwort rice cake, green from pounded yomogi leaves, traditionally filled with sweet red bean paste in spring.
Shōchū
Shōchū is a traditional spirit from Japan.
Tsukemen
Tsukemen is Japanese dipping ramen, springy noodles served cold with an intensely thick, aromatic broth to dip them into. Invented in Tokyo in the 1950s.