Guide · Food
Eating vegetarian and vegan in Japan
Ask for no meat, seafood or animal products, including dashi, and name the animals. Tell venues at booking. Shojin ryori and convenience stores are fallbacks.
You can eat vegetarian or vegan in Japan, but asking for “vegetarian” alone is not enough. JNTO says dashi, a fish stock, is a common hidden ingredient. Ask for no meat, seafood or animal products, including dashi, and name chicken, pork and fish. Carry a Japanese card, tell venues when you book and keep convenience stores and temple meals as fallbacks.
What is the main trap?
Dashi, a cooking stock that often hides in dishes. JNTO’s vegetarian guide calls fish stock (bonito) a common hidden item and says packaged natto sauce often contains dashi.
Secondary travel guides sort the types. Kombu and shiitake stock are plant-based, while katsuobushi, niboshi and mixed stock are fish, and plain “dashi” should be assumed to be fish.
| Item | What to assume | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Plain dashi | Fish stock | JNTO, secondary guides |
| Kombu, shiitake stock | Plant-based | Secondary guides |
| Katsuobushi, niboshi, awase | Fish | Secondary guides |
| Bonito flakes | Fish; they top tofu, okonomiyaki and takoyaki | Secondary guides |
| Natto sauce | Packaged sauce often contains dashi | JNTO |
| Miso soup | Made with dashi, so ask which kind | Secondary guides |
| Batter | May contain stock | Secondary guides |
| Gelatin | Found in wagashi and candy | Secondary guides |
Dashi sits in soups, batter, sauces and toppings, not only in obvious fish dishes, so asking about fish alone misses it. Ask about dashi by name.
What should you ask for?
Ask for no meat, seafood or animal products, including dashi or stock, then name chicken, pork and fish, as JNTO advises. Show a Japanese card instead of relying on one English word.
JNTO says to carry a Japanese card and adds that simply requesting vegetarian may not be sufficient. Advice on the word itself differs: one secondary guide says to avoid it and ask by ingredient, and another says it works in central Tokyo. The ingredient wording is the safer choice.
Ask a Japanese speaker to write this wording on a card:
Wording: “I do not eat meat, seafood or animal products. This includes dashi and other stock. Please tell me if a dish contains chicken, pork or fish.”
JNTO Spain offers free bilingual Spanish and Japanese cards for vegetarian and vegan diets, allergens and coeliac needs, on email request. They are information only, not official documents, and no English version was found.
Before you go Get the wording above written in Japanese, then tell set-menu venues and ryokan your diet when you book.
When should you tell the venue?
Tell the venue before you sit down wherever you can book, and at once where you cannot. JNTO says to notify set-menu restaurants at booking and ryokan in advance.
| Venue | When to tell | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Set-menu restaurant | At booking | JNTO vegetarian guide |
| Ryokan | In advance | JNTO vegetarian guide |
| Temple lodging | Ask ahead | JNTO vegetarian guide |
| Izakaya | When you sit down | JNTO drinking guide |
An izakaya serves a small otoshi dish automatically, before you order, and JNTO says to tell staff about diet needs at once.
Many restaurants have foreign-language booking pages, browser translation works on Japanese-only sites, and a hotel concierge or travel agent can call if a venue takes phone bookings only. Set menus are served to the whole table together, so arrive on time and tell the venue if you are late. Some venues charge a fee for a no-show or a late cancellation; each venue sets the amount and none was found.
Ordering food in Japan covers booking routes, otoshi and no-show fees. Staying in a ryokan covers meal lead times.
Which option fits which situation?
Match the route to how much time you have to ask.
| Situation | Route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Short on time | Convenience store | Umeboshi and kombu rice balls, edamame, salads |
| Planned dinner | Booked set menu | Tell the venue at booking |
| Vegan by default | Shojin ryori | Traditionally vegan; ask about dairy |
| Izakaya night | Tell staff at once | The otoshi dish arrives before you order |
| Ryokan stay | Tell in advance | JNTO says to notify ryokan before you arrive |
No restaurants are named here because venue status was not rechecked.
What is shojin ryori?
Shojin ryori is temple cuisine, traditionally vegan, and it leaves out garlic and onion. JNTO says it is served mainly at temples and temple lodgings (shukubo). Modern monks sometimes use dairy, so ask ahead if you eat vegan.
A JNTO experience page says some temples offer overnight stays with shojin meals, bookable up to 5 days ahead. Koyasan Tourism’s English site points to the Shukubo Association’s site for lodging, and the price, booking rules and dietary policy are not given there.
Before you book Ask a temple lodging whether it uses dairy, and say what you do not eat, before you confirm. JNTO says modern monks sometimes use dairy.
What can you eat at a convenience store?
JNTO says umeboshi and kombu rice balls are usually available, along with edamame, salads and inarizushi. Convenience stores are the fallback when a menu has no answer.
Check packaged sauces, because JNTO says natto sauce often contains dashi. JNTO also says some packs carry vegan or vegetarian stickers from Japanese non-profit groups, which its guide names.
The mandatory allergen list for packaged food has nine items: shrimp or prawn, crab, walnut, wheat, buckwheat, egg, milk, peanut and cashew (cashew since 1 April 2026). Egg and milk matter to a vegan. No official Japanese gluten labelling guidance was found, and the list does not mention gluten itself. Wheat is the closest item and shows on packaged labels, and secondary travel guides say soy sauce contains wheat. Fish and meat are not on the list, so it will not tell a vegetarian everything. Notes such as “processed on the same line” are voluntary and sit outside the ingredient list, per the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, so a missing note does not prove a product is free of cross-contact. The food allergy card explains the list and its open questions.
Where next?
The Food hub lists every food page, and the Food guide covers dishes by region, markets and costs. Ordering food in Japan explains otoshi, set menus and bookings before you reserve. For other diets, read Halal and kosher in Japan. For alcohol rules and sake labels, read Sake and drinking in Japan. Carry the allergen list from the food allergy card and show it before you order.
Questions
It works with planning. JNTO says dashi, a fish stock, is a common hidden ingredient and that simply asking for vegetarian may not be enough. Ask for no meat, seafood or animal products, including dashi, and name chicken, pork and fish.
Dashi is a cooking stock, and a common version is made from bonito. JNTO calls fish stock a common hidden item and says packaged natto sauce often contains dashi. Ask whether a dish contains dashi and which kind.
Shojin ryori is temple cuisine. JNTO says it is traditionally vegan and leaves out garlic and onion, though modern monks sometimes use dairy, so ask ahead. It is served mainly at temples and temple lodgings (shukubo).
JNTO says umeboshi and kombu rice balls are usually available, along with edamame, salads and inarizushi. Check packaged sauces for dashi, because JNTO says natto sauce often contains it.
Official Japanese gluten labelling guidance was not found. Wheat is a mandatory allergen on packaged food, so it shows on labels, and secondary travel guides say soy sauce contains wheat.