Vegetarian Options In Japan



Japanese mainly follow Shintoism and Buddhism. Though I have  asked few people questions about these religions, not everybody knows about the rituals, traditions the Gods etc.  The reason for this might be either they were hesitant to talk about these topics or their knowledge in this topic was hazy. For e.g. when I asked some guys what was there inside the shrines, very few had some idea about it.

So even the Buddhists here are not vegetarians, they believe Buddha ate meat (from wiki  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_cuisine ) and this might be one of the reasons  non-existence of vegetarians in Japan. I recall some of my colleagues telling me that the monks in the shrines are vegetarians and you will get vegetarian food at some shrines.

Finding Vegetarian food in Japan might be really difficult, sometimes it becomes difficult to even explain the concept of vegetarians to a Japanese. The Japanese word for vegetarian is saishoku-shugisha (菜食主義者） but this does not explain the entire concept of vegetarianism, they believe you can eat prawns, fish etc. and even the oil, seasoning may contain fish, beef extract.

From my experience when I say a Japanese I don't eat meat, it is followed by a question "so do you eat fish, shrimp? '. And unlike India where you can tell the chef to customize the menu for your requirement here they often hesitate to customize the menu, they feel altering the menu might tamper the quality. So only vegetarian restaurants I have been in Japan are Tofu restaurant (100% veg menu), Indian restaurants (Tell the chef to not add egg), or some Japanese restaurants with my Japanese friends who can make sure  I get the "vegetarian food".

But for your day to day survival cooking is the best option for vegetarians in Japan.
So here are some tips which I believe will help a vegetarian in Japan.


1. Order groceries online

We are lucky, the technology has shrunk the world and made it easy for us to stay in any part of the world. So here are the list of grocery stores I was using in Japan
  1. Ambika Japan 
     100% vegetarian food available,  

So if you are staying in a major city like Tokyo, Osaka see if they have any stores near you. 
Mainly because onlu shopping above their minimum (~6k yen) limit  avails a free home delivery. Secondly, some of my friends say that buying at their shops you might get some discount if you are friendly 😏 .

Ordering some MTR or Gits ready to eat curries  help in case of emergency 😂

2. Local Grocery Stores 

During my stay in Japan I had visited few Indian/Pakistani grocery stores in Nagoya and Toyota-city 

  1.  In Toyota-city  :Small grocery store ( Click on this ) Here you can get basic Indian groceries like dal, chapathi flour (Aata) , poha (rice flakes), rice, basic spices like turmeric, chilli powder, coriander powder, chat masala, pickles  etc.  
  2. In Nagoya Kanayama : Zafar halal Stores This is a bigger store where you can find frozen food, tamarind, Indian Sweets, few ready to eat packs, Indian snacks etc.
  3. In Nagoya Osu street : I have seen a store which sells MTR ready to eat packs for about ~350yen in osu street. But haven't found it online, I hope this is the place.

3. Vegetarian Groceries found in a typical Japanese shop (Like Megulia/Felna)

Megulia, Felna, Feel etc. these are Japanese Stores/ Super Markets where you usually find Fruits and Vegetables along with the groceries.
  1. Fruits : Some fruits in Japan are very expensive especially fruits like Mango, whole water melon.  Apples (~100yen) , Bananas, Oranges(~100yen) , Strawberry (~500yen for 12 ), Peach, Grapes,Tomato, Pineapple these are some of the affordable fruits you will generally find in the above stores.  You may sometimes find Banana in Convenience stores also like 7 eleven, Lawsons .
  2. Vegetables : You will find vegetables like Broccoli, Onion, Beans, Capsicum, Carrots, Okra , EggPlant, Sweet Potato, Lemon(~100 Yen), Garlic (~100 Yen) , Cabbage , Spinach  
  3. General Groceries ; 
    • Coffee : People in Japan have lots of coffee, but they prefer black coffee, you will find coffee powders from Nescafe and Japanese brands. Even instant coffee powders can be found easily. But if you like coffee mixed with chikori, I haven't found any option here. So people addicted to instant coffee powder like Bru which comes with Chikori added don't have any options here , I haven't seen any similar tasting coffee here. Even the online grocery stores mentioned earlier do not sell BRU till date. There are also drip bag filters available which can give upto 130ml of fresh drip coffee . Like the image shown below. These can be good alternatives for filter coffee. And they do taste like the filter coffee back home.


    • Tea ; Japanese supermarkets have Darjiling Tea, Assam Tea, but I find them to be mild compared to Indian tea powders like RedLabel, 3 roses etc. There are also many Japanese tea brands  options available.
    • Milk:  Cow's Milk is found in all stores even the convenience stores. Meji is a major brand, there are 2 variants one with light blue color and the other with dark blue. The light one is thicker milk (~250 yen)compared to the dark one (~180 Yen) . There are many brands with Soya milk also. I will create a page with a extensive list of procuts available in Japan. Going through that might help you.


    • Curd/ Yogurt : yogurt is easily available at the convenience stores . You can find flavored as well as non flavored yogurt . I prefer Meji/7 eleven Plain Yogurt/ Non-flavoured yogurt .
    • Sugar and Salt: These can be easily found at the convenience stores.




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