Expectation for vegetarian/vegan-friendly Japan

When I started this blog, I was thinking of vegetarians/vegans from abroad who had difficulty finding suitable foods in Japan. I had read about a young man who ate only French fries in McDonald’s during his stay in Japan. It’s an extreme example but understandable. Even for me who can speak and read Japanese, it’s difficult to eat out.

Hamamatsu isn’t a tourist city, but the number of travelers who come here is increasing. Unlike Tokyo and other big cities, there aren’t any vegetarian/vegan restaurants in downtown. So, the aim of this blog was to present vegetarian/vegan foods that are available even in an ordinary provincial town like Hamamatsu. Currently, Indian and Italian restaurants may be the best choices if you want to have substantial meals. Japanese restaurants have some menu items that look like animal-free, but they may be flavored with dried bonito broth. You have to ask about the ingredients in advance.

On the other hand, the metropolitan area is rapidly becoming vegetarian/vegan-friendly as the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games approach. Thanks to recent comments, I learned about green "Vege" signs in Narita Airport and a group of lawmakers who are preparing food guidelines to be proposed to the related government agency this spring. The proposals will include introduction of vegetarian/vegan certification marks. If they are introduced in restaurants and food products, you can recognize easily what to choose. In India, a mark with green circle in a green square is used, and in Taiwan, you can find Chinese characters such as “全素 or 純素 (vegan and not containing five spicy foods)”, “奶素 (lacto vegetarian)”, and “蛋素 (ovo vegetarian)” on the packages of products. When I traveled there, I bought a variety of sweets and instant foods at supermarkets with the help of such indication. I hope the certification marks in Japan will be as practical as possible and vegetarian/vegan foods will be prevailing with these marks.