Japanese Groceries: Q+A v3

In this month's Q+A about life in Japan, I answer questions about groceries in Japan. To ask questions in next month's Q+A, join Patreon / lifewhereimfrom .
- 0:21 Do kids in Japan scream and cry at register because Mom didn't get the waffles?
- 1:18 Can you comments on product branding and marketing of groceries?
- 2:15 Are there products marketed towards kids?
- 3:31 Is it normal to stock up on a few weeks worth of groceries at one time? What are the most common "must have" items you would find in any Japanese pantry?
- 4:59 For muslims, how often are there non-halal ingredients that I would have to look out for at restaurants or at the grocery store?
- 6:33 What kinds of foods do everyday work week meals consist of?
- 7:32 In Canada (as you know), usually a farmer's market produce is MASSIVELY higher priced than in the supermarket's although the quality is better. How does it compare in Japan?
- 9:53 Some price comparisons to the US/Canada standard of living would be interesting.
- 12:06 Why are some imported things super expensive, and why do some seem to be about the same price as you pay in the country of origin?
- 12:48 Is it easy to get most of the ingredients and foods you ate when living in Canada?
- 14:08 I know in Tokyo you have 7 Eleven stores, but what about other stores where people may get groceries from? How do they compare to 7 Eleven? (such as price, quality and quantity etc)
- 15:03 What is the strangest produce you have bought, prepared and eaten?
- 15:54 Why are there so many milk options? We only really have 3 here in the US and what I've seen in Canada, no fat, low fat, and "full" fat. Then there's half and half and cream. There seemed to be 20 options in Japan.
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[@urouroniwa]

I watched this pretty late, but in case some people are curious about another point of view, I've lived in the country side in Japan for 8 years or so. I agree with everything that was said, but I might just add a few things. In general, produce (fruits and vegetables) in Japan are more expensive. This is due to the agricultural system which was put in place by the occupying Americans after WWII. Originally, Japan imported most of its food from other countries and in WWII, the island was blockaded by the US. This led to famine after the war and around 1 million people starved to death. The US put laws in place to ensure that small family run farms would survive and that food was efficiently distributed locally. Because Japanese people don't like to change their laws frequently, those laws are still in place. So farms are a *lot* smaller than in Europe and especially a *lot*, *lot* smaller than the US or Canada. I live in the countryside and most of the farms near me are about the size of some residential lots in Canada. One of the interesting upsides to this is that food is very local. When talking of branding, vegetables and fruits often display where the food was grown (down to the city), and sometimes even have a picture of the farmer. My local grocery store puts the farmer's name on all the local produce, so that everyone can decide which one they want to buy. Of course this doesn't happen as much in Tokyo because they are so big that they have to import a lot of food from outside the prefecture, but you still see it there sometimes. This is also one of the reasons you don't see big farmers markets in Japan. There is no need. But as mentioned in the video, most farmers have unmanned boxes where you can buy fresh produce. People in Japan generally don't vandalise these things and don't try to steal from them, so it's completely reasonable to do it. Imported foods have incredibly high tarrifs depending on the kind of food. Also the tax structure is completely different. French wine is *cheaper* than you can buy in France (and Scotch is *considerably* cheaper than in Scotland!) On the other hand, foreign rice is actually illegal (The WTO makes Japan buy rice from the US, but it rots in a warehouse). Essentially "staple" foods are either illegal to import or have incredibly high duties. However, what is considered a "staple" is mixed up with what the Americans thought was a staple in the 1950s. So butter falls into that category (even though it was not a staple in Japan in the 1950s by any stretch of the imagination). Butter is interesting because something like 60% of Japanese people are lactose intolerant and they don't drink milk. However, they like butter and cream now. Because the country is so mountainous, there is little room for cattle grazing and the amount of milk production is limited. There is *always* a shortage of butter and cream. When it is a cold winter, the rural areas of Japan will have *no* butter. For a two year period I saw butter in the store exactly once (and you better believe I bought it at whatever insane price it was sold at). Again, this is much less visible in Tokyo, due to the power of large city economics. One of the reasons you see so many weird "milk products" in Japan is because there is a massive *oversupply* of skimmed milk (because they use the cream for butter). But *nobody* in Japan drinks skimmed milk. It just gets dumped on the market and drink manufacturers have leapt on the opportunity. So you get Calpis and Skal as well as all the weird milk-like and skimmed milk yogurt drinks. Incidentally, when the US occupied Japan, they made it the law that all school children had to drink a pint of milk every day at school. Which was not necessarily bad due to school children starving to death and all that, but... 60% are lactose intolerant! So if you ask any elderly person what they think about milk and they go a bit green around the gills. Enter yogurt! In yogurt, almost all of the lactose is eaten by the bacteria, so it's massively better than milk. And that's why yogurt is super popular in Japan. Apart from fruits and vegetables, Japanese beef is incredibly expensive. Again, no land to raise cattle (it's either a forested mountain, or it's already growing rice). Pork is a little on the high side, but not too bad. Chicken is about the same (although good luck trying to find a whole chicken!). Fish is crazily cheap. I mean, insanely cheap. That's a whole other conversation (which you should never have with a Japanese person, because they'll hate you forever ;-) ). Let's put it this way, I once saw cod from the Grand Banks being proudly sold at my local grocery store. Google away if you are not Canadian to find out why that's shocking. Cheese is also ridiculously expensive (although it's progressively getting better). I don't think there are import duties, but it's just not popular here. You have to pay a huge premium for it. Slowly there are getting to be some local producers of cheese, so I think this will get better over the next 10 or 20 years. But basically, if you eat a North American diet here, expect to pay a lot for food. If you eat Japanese food, it's pretty cheap -- mainly because you're kind of forced to eat a lot more fish and vegetables. My grocery bills are about the same as what I paid in Canada, but I get much better produce. I've written a book here, but one last thing about pantry items. Most Japanese apartments (and even houses) have insanely small kitchens. There is no storage space. I was eyeing the vertical stack of drawers in the video and thinking we have the same thing: we just bought a bunch of stacking plastic drawers. It's the only way to have anything in the pantry. We usually have dried pasta (both Italian and Japanese), konbu and other seaweed (I make my own dashi), a little bit of flour, panko (bread crumbs) and just a couple of canned goods. In Canada I had a huge pantry full of tons of stuff, but can't get away with it here. Hope that proves interesting to some latecomers to the video.

[@etherdog]

Very informative. Thanks! I kinda thought the same.

[@gwillis01]

It is unfortunate that people just after World War II were ignorant about lactose intolerant. Forcing Japanese children to drink milk was done with good intentions but it had unintended consequences. It is a good thing that lactose is less troublesome in cheese or yogurt.

[@kyraarts]

A video of you all grocery shopping as a family would be so cute!!

[@mikimisteinberg4016]

Kyra Universe , totally agree! Yes to a clip of you doing a weekly grocery shopping, especially with the children.

[@LifeWhereImFromX]

Yeah, I've been meaning to do it. I can sneak shots quickly at a grocery store, but getting a proper video would require getting permission from management. The places by me are chains, so I doubt I'd get approval easily. Would need to go to some place that has a decent size grocery store but that is not a chain.

[@shardraco]

I think the first question was relating to more about 'do kids throw tantrums when the parents don't buy them certain things they want' compared to crying because of just waffles, per se.

[@TinyRukia]

Love your videos! They're very informative and helpful. ☺

[@9asyhd9sahgdsahd59]

Thank you for another great video!

[@allistrata]

Japanese whole milk in a blue carton. My brain was like "nope nope nope, that's 2%".

[@edelmeister.]

Thanks for answering all the questions! The view you get in Europe about japanese food is usually just either sushi or ramen, so getting more insight about normal groceries was enlightening.

[@sheikahchic]

Very helpful, thank you for all this new info!

[@brramzi31]

I always love your videos, Greg! thank you so much for always bringing us insights to living in Japan. i dream to live in Japan some day.

[@preetidas4911]

Aiko is so cute Please do more and more video with aiko and shin

[@Ram-Kay]

Love your videos!! You are very good at making very informative and interesting content. Greetings from Germany as well 😉

[@theshylittlefox]

Thank you for the Q&A.

[@MohamedIbrahim-kp9pz]

What I like about your channel that, It's sincere, you are a nice person who tries to offer a hand of help and to show the real good and bar sides of Japan! From Fukuoka Salute!!

[@redplumsaresour3860]

It seems so easy and that everything is put together with the consumer in mind

[@LordLiquidBaconII]

Thanks for answering my question Greg.

[@juliakonowrocka9564]

Great video!

[@charlieg1823]

Love ur vids! Im curious on what groceries look like there. Can u please vlog while grocery shopping with ur kids? 😊

[@kinotori1235]

Most grocery stores prohibit filming in their stores in Japan as their competition always try to spy.

[@Lucy0809]

Love the cat jumping on the oven 😘

[@meimeimei7812]

keep up the good work! I love your videos. Greet from Indonesia.

[@Joy.Elizabeth]

So interesting!!! Thanks so much! Hi kitty! 😸

[@Ping_Jhing]

love your kids videos!

[@maismann]

love your videos

[@Zoe-zj6jq]

Great video with useful information is there a culture of milk substitutes in Japan let's say almond milk, oat milk, coconut milk, rice milk and so forth for non dairy drinkers

[@chocolatemilk888]

it would be lovely if you guys could do grocery haul videos!

[@janek7618]

I agree with your comment about eating out in N.A. vs Japan. When people hear about our travels to Japan, they often comment about how it must be really expensive there. But since we live in the Washington, DC area, it's pretty comparable. Like anything, it depends on what kinds of restaurants you choose. When in Japan we often go to izakaya, local mom and pop shops, curry place, or Chinese restaurants, so it doesn't have to be expensive.

[@nalanishintani2540]

I love that I started watching this while eating natto for dinner and you mentioned you weren't a fan. I wonder if I subconsciously expected it. I love the stuff cuz I was raised on it and always get curious about people who do and do not like it (I've had some people who I wouldn't expect tell me they like it). Good to know some kinds of produce like daikon are pretty cheap since i know the fruit prices in japan can get crazy.

[@annawitter5161]

Love the kitty in the background

[@metrotorful]

Hey man, you looked very tired in the video. Is everything okay? I hope you didn't make this video just because you promised the Patreon subscribers. Please take it easy!

[@LifeWhereImFromX]

I just didn't get good sleep the night before. I'm feeling fine today :-)

[@thoptercrew]

I just recently discovered your second channel (yeah, thanks algorythm). You should do more of these, they're great, I watched all of them by now. Just you, with sensei or your family/friends, there's just so much useful information! If you ever do another one, a couple of questions: 1) what is the number 1 thing one should be aware of when job hunting in Japan? 2) is it difficult for a foreigner to adapt to life in the Japanese countryside or smaller cities away from the big centres? I'm thinking of someone with limited knowledge of the Japanese language having to do business with people maybe not so used to see foreigners and having to deal with bureaucracy, lots of information just in Japanese, etc Thanks for your videos and all you do!

[@trekkeruss]

Why I never submit a question when you solicit for them, I dunno. Sorta grocery related: Every time I see a program about bento, it seems like someone is getting up really early in the morning in order to prepare one. Have you or your wife ever done this for your kids for school? If you have, what do you prepare; what do they like most?

[@LifeWhereImFromX]

Not really, since elementary school provides school lunches. On special field trip days, my wife does get up early (or prepares at night, or both) to make a special bento.

[@mikimisteinberg4016]

1) Do you have available kosher foods? Smoked salmon or cold cuts/deli meat (sliced turkey or pastrama): canned tuna, sardines? 2) Do you happen to know anyone Jewish in Tokyu? 3) Now that your video KZbin has gone so viral, how do you feel about, if any of your KZbin followers were to be in Japan and would like to meet you and your children (I recall that your wife is rarely in a clip and I assume she wants her privacy and that you totally respect)?

[@Sgonz22]

I don't think the first question was literally about waffles lol just in general do kids whine when they don't get what they want.

[@jovanalevesque54]

well in north america a lot of kid threw trantrum for everything knwoing very well that theyll always get what they want

[@sleepydog9968]

pretty sure in asian countries, especially japan of all the places, would have more no-tolerance / no-nonsense parents :P

[@newjoyyork]

About the natto, my mom made me eat it growing up so I'm used to it, but she's born and raised in Okinawa, and hates it. I think it's just something you have to get used to if you didn't grow up eating it. I also feel like every time I go to Japan, I eat a LOT more, but the quality is so high and fresh, and plus all the walking, I end up losing weight there. Definitely miss all the varieties of pan from Lawsons or some other combini. Cheers for a great video!!

[@crossandshoot796]

Way what!?!!?!?! You can find ground beef in any grocery store in Japan lol And low fat and no fat milk s are also in every grocery store even in convenient stores

[@KleinerDrache]

In Germany we have three options of milk. Full milk( 3,5% fat ), half-full milk ( 1,5% fat ) and skimmed milk ( with no fat ). Of course there are many different options, too. Examples are with flavors like with banana, strawberry or like that, or with added minerals like protein and so on. And different kind of milk as example should be soja milk or from the goats. I don´t know how many kinds of milk we do have exactly.

[@WANDERER0070]

7.32 Im in Windsor Ontario and farmers market store has way cheaper food meat and fruits even imported ones year round,, then Superstores..

[@Lclhney]

Some neighbourhoods there's some grandpa and grandma selling vegetables that they grow vegetables by themself and sell outside of theirs neighbour it's pretty fresh

[@LimingLyn]

I found the grocery prices were comparable. Living in Richmond we have many Asian markets (T&T, H-Mart) so the selections is great and the Western style grocery stores (the ones I shop at Choices Save-on-Foods) are a bit more expensive than the ones I visited in Japan. I liked the smaller snack sizes and the huge variety. Such as over 1,000 selection of curries; :)

[@AMAR9933]

I was surprised to hear that farmer's markets in canada are more expensive than stores. In greece and also in the netherlands markets tend to be way cheaper and also better quality (the only issue being they are not open daily but once or twice a week).

[@ahh01010]

Can you make a video of local groceries store? I have not seen a local groceries stand alone store. but most are in the basements of department stores.

[@SayeeswarAnirutho]

How to differentiate between vegetarian and non vegetarian products? In Japan ofcourse....

[@xcalibertrekker6693]

I cant speak for Canada but I live in the US and I go grocery shopping at least twice a week.

[@Timenow1]

Same, I live in California.....the local grocery store I shop at already knows me....guess I like fresh produce/food too

[@Feuryy]

Does Japan have home groceries delivery, in the UK our supermarkets have a delivery service where they pick and deliver your shopping for you.

[@seafarer_]

what up greg!!! also: what up cat!!!

[@Yesica1993]

In 70s, working on a farm - RESPECT to your FiL!

[@FelinaCF]

hellowould you make a video where to stay in tokyo? cheapest

[@wondertraveller9928]

Is it difficult to find vegetarian food(pure vegetarian, without eggs) in Japan?

[@cherylmedeiros6287]

With a family of 4 do you not stock up on certain things at Costco? You live in a bigger home now st storage is not as much of an issue as before. Or is it too far from where you live?

[@InTeCredo]

I live in Germany and have ordered many American items through amazon.de because they're readily available and much cheaper than the supermarkets. Sometimes we bring the packages with us when we fly home from the United States.

[@sebastianusami]

The US is well known for bad diets and processed food. How does Japan compare? I imagine this is becoming a bigger issue when your using things like the packaged curry mix or other addons.

[@scarletletter4900]

Milk beverage sounds like it would be the dairy-based equivalent to lemonade; in that the most notable ingredient has been diluted for the purposes of making a sweet drink.

[@georgebenta3435]

As a tourist with little or no Japanese, how difficult is it to buy groceries?

[@TapurokNatureFarm]

was that first snack the same stuff doraemon loves?

[@timelesssurabaya234]

Yeaaa, I suppose it was a Dorayaki! :D :D

[@soulsearcher9530]

Do they sell pet food items at the grocery stores? Or only at pet supply shops?

[@LifeWhereImFromX]

You can get in grocery stores. We order from Amazon though.

[@RobertT1999]

Hearing that whole milk is the standard in Japan makes me happy. The semi skimmed and skimmed milk is like water 😂😂😂 Also, are you ok? You seemed a little off (or tired) which is fine because we're all human after all. If I'm completely wrong, please disregard what I said. Still, a nice genuine video like usual so thank you for it.

[@LifeWhereImFromX]

I love whole milk! And yea, probably just tired. Didn't sleep well the night before.

[@kinotori1235]

Nato = Snoto... Back in 1967 an American Milk Shake was a glass of milk with sugar and ice cubes---ugh. But lately, the best beverage in Japan was a quart of pure concord grape juice you can buy in 7-11 way superior to American watered down mixed grape juice.

[@HerrySis48]

I know I shouldn't say this but, dad is cute

[@princessjello]

Got lucky in asakusa, found a strawberry sale. 10 for 349¥

[@sarahtonen4873]

i live in chinaotwn, 5:00 they call it guylan (sp?) it's yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my favourite veggie after purslane

[@mayabewsher6987]

I quite like natto actually. Strawberries are really expensive in Japan, but I guess they are pretty dear here in England too. In England they are $3-4 for maybe 10 and they usually don't taste too great. With packaging it is only extensive when you see maybe one banana or a carrot wrapped up. I will be moving to Tokyo at the end of this year, and am looking for the best/cheapest supermarket. I have heard of one called Niku no Hanamasa which has very cheap meat and also fair priced fruit and veg. You can't get everything there though. My auntie who lives in Okayama-ken uses the co-op a lot as the stock is of great quality and supports the local farmers. Best wishes to you and your family.

[@Mwoods2272]

Hanamasa is very cheap but not a large choice selection. If you want mayo, you get 2 brands and 1 size and at a market you get 10 brands and 10 different size choice. They cater to restaurants so a lot of bulk items. I like Life and OK markets, I think they have the best prices. There is also Seiyu, Aeon, Santoku and Ito Yokado big chain supermarkets in Tokyo.

[@mayabewsher6987]

Thanks for the reply.I have stayed in Tokyo before and found it really hard to get good produce cheaply (I was in Shinagawa). This time though I will be in Takadanobaba, so seems a lot more reasonable. I remember seeing a small pot of mixed berries for 1200 yen!! Tokyo is certainly not the cheapest place. Although, I can't wait to return. I miss Oden, Japanese curry, onigiri, gyudon, and hot lemon tea so much.

[@Mwoods2272]

Takadanobaba is a nice place. There is an OK market, Peacock(Aeon subsidiary), Seiyu, Maruetsu and one of those Co-Op markets 5 to 10 minutes from the station. It's near Waseda Uni, so a lot of good and cheap places to eat.

[@D0x1511af]

hello there.May I ask about purchasing real estate in Japan ( *I mean for foreigner* )?Do we need verified permanent resident or married with Japanese spouse for buying eligibility?I totally curious about this topic.... thx in regards

[@catsbyondrepair]

Just money

[@ugineaubreydrakegraham9907]

Om Pom man, red bean paste buns, is that the same thing as the Guyanese-Chinese Pastry “Chiney Cake a/k/a Black Eye”? 2:28

[@minexplosion2857]

There is so much plastic when I see japanese groceries in videos. Why are vegetables and fruits so often individually packed in plastic?

[@kateri17]

schlupfmurke I have wondered this too.

[@holyfox94]

They wrap a lot of veggies at the german REWE too. Unfortunately.

[@minexplosion2857]

Nach der eingeschweißten Salatgurke ist der absolute Wahnsinn dann schon geschnittenes Gemüse, wie Tomatenscheiben in Plastik. Wer kauft das?! Das muss doch total peinlich an der Kasse sein.

[@marchosiass]

Ninja cat appears! Whoosh! 02:16

[@diribigal]

I'm curious if your pronunciation of "Tobias" is common in Canada, influenced by Japanese vowels, or neither

[@yonezawa2810]

Pretty sure the first question was meant as “do the kids scream and cry if they don’t get something they want (e.g. that anpanman candy set)” YES. YES, THEY DO. But maybe not as much as the kids back in the West ;)

[@grenzle2428]

Is there a reason you don't pronounce your Gs at the end of words like Reading, or Ending? Is it because you're from a specific region?

[@JayeEllis]

I went to school with Greg back in Canada. No, it's not a regional accent, just the way he speaks.

[@sanityisrelative]

I don't know what this is where my brain stuck while watching this, but I just wanted to point out that saying milk is homogenized has nothing to do with the overall fat content of the milk, it's to do with the fat not separating and rising to the top. You can find non-homogenized milk, at least here in the states, but you're likely to pay more for it since homogenized is industry standard in the states. I'm curious now if the milk in Japan is homogenized or not.

[@LifeWhereImFromX]

It's probably a Canadian thing. We have 1%, 2%, and homo (short for homogenized) at 3.5%, which is different than whole milk which also has around that fat percentage. Everything is pasteurized, but whole milk is not homogenized, which would blend the fat all together. So I think homogenized is used to distinguish the two different milks at the 3.5% fat level..

[@anonimoj4824]

Can you do a video about eating vegan in Japan :)

[@iancopsey875]

What about Lawson??

[@Telenaus]

[@Aphexnexus]

You can get waffles at Starbucks in Japan :D

[@daseincog]

Hey Greg - I've noticed for some time now that when you pronounce words ending in "ing", you tend to truncate it to be just "in' ". For example, you say packagin' and you lose the last G. I've noticed that Aiko has also adopted this way of speech. Just curious, since it's not how most folks from BC speak, whether you've always had that linguistic variation? Does that originate from any of your family members?

[@elizabethduplat5835]

Hi, I'm not Greg, but just to let you know, it's extremely common (normal, even!) for native speakers of North American English to drop the final "g" when speaking. It's not just a vocal tic from Greg or his family. All Americans and Canadians I know do it.

[@amatullahaa]

Trinidadian people leave off the g in ing words as well!

[@daseincog]

@Elizabeth Duplat - I'm Canadian, and while I occasionally hear the loss of the "g" on some words, most people do enunciate it. I've noticed that Greg routinely doesn't enunciate it on any word that ends in "ing".

[@gossamerthreadful]

I think the interesting thing is that he carefully enunciates all other words. In North America, usually those who drop the ‘ng’ also enunciate other words loosely.... e.g. “whatcha cookin” as opposed to “what are you cookin” or “I’m just relaxin” as opposed to “I am merely relaxin” Spoken words are fascinating.

[@pip9676]

Thats a doracake greg😊😊

[@astroboy3507]

Fruits are crazy expensive in Japan!!!

[@LifeWhereImFromX]

Generally, yes! Mikans are not bad when in season. Bananas and apples can be ok.

[@astroboy3507]

Life Where I'm From X true i understand!! But some things wow!!! Greg

[@catsbyondrepair]

No there not there always cheaper than what in America . Just a weeks worth of food in usa is 250 usd or more I can get the weeks worth of food in Japan for 30 usd.

[@audrey.c1]

I spent like $10 on a tray of strawberries LOL not a container! just a small tray... also legit threw up when I first tried nato

[@AutumnFalls89]

$10?! Wow! Is that for 1lb? I think that averages $5 in the off-season here (Canada).

[@audrey.c1]

AutumnFalls89 not even a pound like 11 strawberries? Or less

[@LifeWhereImFromX]

It can depend on the season or what exactly you're buying. Can usually get under 500 yen.

[@audrey.c1]

Life Where I'm From X I bought them in March :) but I also think it has to do with location as I was in Minato and Shinjuku at the time

[@audrey.c1]

Life Where I'm From X also, the first pack I bought were at Tokyo Disney’s shopping district *facepalm*

[@karengibson1693]

I like your cat

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

7-11 Egg Steamed Bun for $.99 rule.

[@tokyorosa]

I could never find cottage cheese in Tokyo!

[@Mwoods2272]

Sour cream is also hard to find.

[@Mwoods2272]

Thanks for the info, didn't know it was so simple.

[@d5486]

😺

[@sebastianusami]

KITTY

[@BoondockCleric]

I thought i could do straight natto...I thought wrong

[@darkluxmortem]

nice cat

[@justagirl6671]

It's feels weird so quite in here (comments section)

[@victorpatiu8491]

情報 Jōhō

[@ceil5001]

IMHO, I'm no longer addicted to this channel as I was before. A 20min video has to be sharp and to the point to keep my attention. Maybe I'll check out future vids...

[@diribigal]

Maybe the main channel is more your style?

[@NunyaDammeBiznis]

Kids don't scream for waffles. They scream for candy, they scream for their favorite cereal, they scream for chips, etc....

[@Andrelour]

The ultra excessive amount of packaging in Japan is unbelievable! The countless little bags inside a bigger bag, the 3 to 4 layers of wrapping fancy paper or plastic around stuff, etc. I mean, it sure makes the products look beautiful and attractive to buy but, when I think of the tons and tons of trash produced, it’s depressing.

[@Wolfswind003]

The labeling in Japan is pretty terrible compared to Europe :( Things are mislabled/ have wrong ingredients listed or sometimes certain ingredients are not listed at all. There are no vegan/vegetarian labels, but then again most things contain fish stock or other animal products. If you are vegetarian/ vegan and want to go to Japan I recommend you to join vegan Japan facebook groups. People have asked companies and very often they said things such as onigiri contain fish stock/eggs etc. and those are not listed :( But if you are not very strickt/ want to make exceptions/are able to cook for yourself at hostels or guest houses you will be fine, so please don't let it stop you from coming to Japan :)

[@Wolfswind003]

sen.touji that's very confusing O.o I think it is very difficult for people who choose their diets for moral and ethic reasons but it's even worse for people with allergies. Mislabeling can endanger their lives :/

[@D0x1511af]

TQ for info can you provide the verified link.....

[@Mwoods2272]

They need to shutdown the food industry. They will end up killing someone with allergies.

[@comajac1282]

So much plastic and packaging :/

[@tribalfamily5530]

From my observations while living in Japan the last 4 years...while there is a lot of packaging- they are VERY responsible in their trash processing and recycling. I toured the trash processing plant near to us, and was amazed at how extremely effective the processing was- they even use the byproduct for making sidewalks and such. It’s a culture that respects nature largely and that takes things like recycling extremely seriously from my observations compared to western culture.

[@motled]

I had the same observation and concern. Appreciating nature and having a good waste management and recycling system is important but it is also important to instill in consumers that unnecessary waste is just that, unnecessary .. and all around the world we can improve the quality of our future Earth by refusing to receive or create waste in the first place. I hope there is more of a focus on a reduction of waste in Japan and globally. Thanks for commenting; inspired me to share as well. :)

[@tvbox6955]

*** Count how many times you say ahhh and umm. It’s rather tiresome! ***

[@stillmangal]

Only two questions in, i got bored and annoyed by you... the first question about the kids, probably meant, if you see kids misbehave throw a fit scream shout cry swear at the parent if they don't get what they want! and not literally about pancakes. the pancake was prolly just an example. the second question about the marketing. Even I could answer it better then you and I don't even live in japan! marketing wise I would say in japan most products (the majority) is advertised by celebrity's in crazy and funny very different ways then in the west. just look at the cm's here on youtube. And the packaging in stores are mostly more colorful the products in the west. after those to question I paused the video to comment. sorry what kind of bland guy are you? those poor patreaons.