By Yoshi | Japan Unveiled
Among the practical challenges that the international visitor to Japan faces, the navigation of dietary restrictions is among the most genuinely difficult — not because the Japanese food industry is indifferent to the issue, but because the Japanese food culture is built on specific ingredients whose removal substantially changes the character of the cuisine, and because the tradition of transparent ingredient communication developed later in Japan than in some Western countries.
The person who arrives in Japan with a serious wheat allergy, a shellfish allergy, a soy allergy, or a commitment to vegetarian or vegan eating faces a landscape that is significantly more complex than the same dietary restriction would produce in, say, London or Sydney. In Japan, the hidden ingredient is a structural feature of the cuisine rather than an exception to it. Dashi — which contains fish — is in virtually everything. Soy sauce — which contains wheat — is in virtually everything. Mirin and sake appear in preparations that would not obviously contain alcohol. This is not carelessness; it is the architecture of the flavour tradition.
I want to address this topic directly and practically, because it affects a significant proportion of international visitors and is underserved by the food tourism literature, which tends to celebrate the food without adequately addressing the barriers that some visitors face in accessing it.
Japan’s Mandatory Allergen Labelling: What the Law Requires
Japan has a mandatory food allergen labelling system that covers packaged foods sold at retail. Since 2023, the Japanese Food Labelling Act requires the labelling of 28 allergen categories, of which 8 are “priority” allergens requiring mandatory labelling on all packaged foods: wheat, buckwheat, eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts (walnuts and cashews), shrimp, and crab.
The remaining 20 allergens — including soy, fish, squid, salmon roe, abalone, various fruits, pork, chicken, sesame, and others — are recommended for labelling but not legally mandated for packaged foods. This distinction matters significantly in practice: a product containing soy may not be labelled for soy unless the manufacturer chooses to declare it, while a product containing wheat must be labelled.
The critical limitation: labelling requirements apply to packaged retail foods. Restaurant food, including food sold at convenience stores as prepared food rather than packaged goods, is subject to a different regime. Restaurants are encouraged to provide allergen information and many do, but the legal requirement is weaker than for packaged goods, and the practical availability of complete allergen information varies enormously between establishments.
The konbini situation: convenience stores in Japan have substantially improved their allergen communication in recent years. Most major konbini chains (7-Eleven, Lawson, FamilyMart) now display allergen information for their prepared food items either on the packaging or on their mobile apps, and their apps typically allow filtering by allergen to identify safe options. For the visitor with allergen concerns, the konbini may actually be the most practically accessible dining option in Japan, because the allergen information is more consistently available there than at small restaurants.
The Invisible Allergens: Dashi, Soy Sauce, and Hidden Fish
For people with fish allergies, Japan presents a specific and serious challenge: katsuobushi (dried bonito) is the primary dashi ingredient and appears in the broth or seasoning base of a very large proportion of Japanese preparations — not only obvious fish dishes but miso soup, simmered vegetables, noodle broths, rice seasonings, and many other preparations that do not appear to contain fish. The visual presence of fish is not a reliable indicator of the presence of fish-derived flavouring.
Similarly, soy sauce in Japan almost universally contains wheat (the Japanese label 小麦 — komugi — to look for on labels). The standard soy sauce production process includes wheat as a fermentation substrate. The gluten-free soy sauce options — tamari (たまり), which is made with little or no wheat, and certain specific gluten-free shoyu products — are available at health food shops and some supermarkets, but are not the standard product in most restaurant contexts. The person with celiac disease eating soy sauce in Japan is in general consuming wheat unless they have specifically verified otherwise.
The practical implications for specific dietary restrictions:
Fish allergy: This is among the most difficult dietary restrictions to manage in Japan, because the fish presence is structural and often invisible. The safest approach is to focus on preparations where fish is visibly absent and the broth is clearly non-fish based — Chinese-style preparations, Western-style restaurants, or specifically vegetarian establishments. Carrying a written Japanese allergy card explaining the restriction is strongly recommended.
Wheat/Gluten allergy or celiac disease: Wheat appears in soy sauce (the ingredient in almost everything), in noodle dishes, in tempura batter, in many bread products and packaged snacks. Safe choices include plain rice, sashimi (without soy sauce), plain grilled meat or fish, and foods prepared without soy sauce. Tamari is widely available as a substitute and is safe for most wheat-allergic people (verify gluten-free labelling for celiac disease). Some Japanese restaurants, particularly higher-end ones in tourist areas, have become knowledgeable about gluten-free preparation.
Shellfish allergy: While shellfish is less structurally embedded than fish dashi, it appears widely in Japanese coastal cuisine and in konbini prepared foods. Labelling is mandatory for shrimp and crab; other shellfish (oysters, scallops, abalone) fall under the recommended-but-not-mandatory category. Careful label reading is essential, and restaurant communication in Japanese or via allergy cards is advisable.
Vegetarian and Vegan Navigation in Japan
Japan presents specific challenges for plant-based diets that go beyond the allergen management issue. The Japanese culinary tradition is not structured around a vegetarian-accessible paradigm — unlike Indian cuisine, for example, which has deep vegetarian traditions built into its daily cooking, Japanese secular cooking has historically included fish and meat as standard components of daily eating.
The good news: Japan’s vegetarian and vegan restaurant scene has grown substantially since 2015, and urban areas — particularly Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka — now have a significant number of dedicated vegetarian and vegan establishments, including some that achieve high culinary standards. Apps including HappyCow are reasonably reliable for finding vetted plant-based restaurants in major Japanese cities.
The specific Japanese complications for vegetarians:
Dashi: As noted, standard Japanese dashi contains katsuobushi. Plant-based dashi using kombu and dried shiitake is traditional in the shojin ryori context and is available at specialist shops; it is not the standard in mainstream Japanese restaurants unless specifically offered.
Mirin: Contains alcohol, which is a concern for some dietary frameworks, though not for vegetarian/vegan diets per se.
“Vegetable dishes” in standard Japanese restaurants: Many preparations described as vegetable dishes contain fish broth in the simmering liquid. The dish is not served with fish, but fish flavour is present in the preparation. This is genuinely invisible to the casual observer and requires specific inquiry.
The most practical approach for visiting vegetarians: seek out establishments that explicitly identify as vegetarian or vegan, carry a Japanese-language dietary restriction card specifying the prohibited ingredients in detail, and focus on food categories that are structurally more compatible — fresh fruit, plain rice, certain sushi (inari sushi, avocado rolls, cucumber rolls, various vegetable preparations), and the large range of tofu-based preparations available at convenience stores.
Useful Japanese Phrases and Allergy Cards
The food allergy card — a laminated card or printed sheet in Japanese explaining the specific allergy in clear terms — is the most effective single tool for managing dietary restrictions in Japan. Several organisations produce pre-made versions in English with Japanese translations for common restrictions, or the visitor can have a card prepared before departure using a translation service.
Key Japanese terms worth knowing:
Arerugi (アレルギー) — allergy. __ ga arimasu (〜があります) — I have __ . So “I have a wheat allergy” is: komugi arerugi ga arimasu (小麦アレルギーがあります).
Taberu koto ga dekimasen (食べることができません) — I cannot eat. Haitte imasu ka? (入っていますか?) — Does this contain [ingredient]?
Dashi nuki de onegaishimasu (だし抜きでお願いします) — Please prepare without dashi. This is a useful phrase at restaurants where the dashi is the concern, though it may or may not be accommodatable depending on the preparation.
The visitor who prepares their dietary restriction communication before arriving in Japan — with printed cards in Japanese, pre-identified restaurants in the target city, and knowledge of the safe food categories — will have a significantly better experience than the visitor who attempts to navigate these restrictions on the fly in an unfamiliar language. Japan’s food culture is genuinely generous and genuinely anxious to accommodate guests; it simply requires communication that meets it where it is.
— Yoshi 🍱 Central Japan, 2026
Enjoyed this? You might also like: “Japanese Restaurant Etiquette: A Complete Guide” and “Japanese Food Tourism: How to Eat Your Way Through Japan” — both available on Japan Unveiled.
