How To Survive Living in Japan as a Vegetarian
Learning to cook in a foreign country, armed with 1 stovetop
Japan often comes up when you Google ‘hardest countries for vegetarians’.
Traditionally consuming mainly fish, the Japanese also love their meat. Wagyu beef, Sukiyaki, Shabu Shabu. They have developed an impressive array of meat-based dishes. Even if you find a seemingly safe dish, it may come with a sneaky splash of Dashi.
Just before I moved to Kyoto at 22, I decided to bite the bullet and quit eating meat. If other people could do it, so could I.
Except, ‘other people’ weren’t about to move to Japan with next to no cooking skills.
Types of meatless diets
First off, let’s see what a meatless diet can look like.
There’s veganism, which excludes all animal products for ethical reasons.
There’s plant-based eating, which is often used interchangeably with veganism but isn’t exactly the same thing. If you’re plant-based, most of your meals consist of plant foods, but you may have meat or dairy occasionally and mainly follow the diet for health reasons.
Vegetarians don’t eat meat but do consume dairy and eggs. To make things more complicated, some vegetarians eat chicken or fish.
Then, there’s flexitarians, who reduce meat consumption but don’t cut it out completely.
At the time of writing this, I guess you could call me an ostro-vegetarian. I consume dairy and bivalves, but no chicken, fish, or other types of meat.
This article is for anyone trying to reduce their intake of animal products, so feel free to take whatever is useful and leave what isn’t. Every bit counts.
Learning about nutrition
During my first year of living in Japan, I subsisted on konbini salads most of the time. And these weren’t the types of salads you can find in the West. I’m talking lettuce, corn, one tomato slice, and a soy or sesame dressing. Other than that, almost all savory food contained some type of meat.
I’d always been skinny but when my parents came to visit, my mom insisted I looked unhealthy and needed to feed myself properly. Sigh.
So, I started looking up vegetarian recipes online.
It was overwhelming at first. I didn’t even know what half of the ingredients were. The fact that English isn’t my first language didn’t help, of course, but some ingredients were just unavailable to me. I wasn’t going to find liquid smoke at the average Japanese supermarket.
I also had trouble with written recipes. I needed to see how these ingredients would come together to create an actual meal.
This led me to YouTube channels talking about proper nutrition on a meatless diet. I had never really given much thought to how my needs would change after cutting out meat.
I checked what nutrients to pay attention to through sites like The Vegan Society. I relied on the Cheap Lazy Vegan channel for recipes using only basic ingredients.
The first dish I made was a 3-ingredient chili.
From there, I started stocking my spice cabinet, and I became less intimidated by ingredient lists. I found a health-food store that sells vegan broth. I found out the Yamaya liquor store has a shelf full of beans and lentils, and the Gyomu supermarket stocks tahini and hummus.
I also got a B12 supplement.
Grocery shopping
I’m lucky enough to live in Kyoto, a relatively vegetarian-friendly city. We have lots of vegan restaurants, like Choice and Ain Soph, in addition to countless Indian restaurants. But eating out every day isn’t realistic, so I make most of my meals at home.
Let me take you on a typical grocery shopping trip.
Soy products
Tofu seems like the obvious choice for veggie food in Japan. It’s probably the cheapest protein source, and it’s widely available. However, I don’t use it as much as lentils and beans. Maybe it’s just my neighborhood, but I haven’t been able to find extra firm tofu. The main types are silken tofu (絹ごし), and firm tofu (木綿).
Whenever I try to fry tofu, it ends up falling apart and sticking to the bottom of my pan.
I usually stick to other forms, such as edamame and natto (納豆).
While natto takes some getting used to, it’s incredibly healthy and it’s a rare vegan source of vitamin K2. However, it can be tricky to find natto without the bonito flakes topping.
It’s not just natto, though. Many products seem safe but aren’t actually vegan. I recommend Is it vegan? Japan, which gives detailed information on what products are safe to buy.
Lentils
Every once in a while, I get a bag of dried lentils (レンズ豆) at the Yamaya liquor store, and it serves me for months. Lentils are amazing.
Unlike beans, they don’t take long to cook. There’s no risk of undercooking them and accidentally poisoning yourself, like with kidney beans.
They’re also versatile. I mostly use them in curries, but they can serve as a base for soups, stews, and even veggie burgers.
When I want something simple, cheap, and nutritious, I make a trip to the Gyomu Supermarket and get a jar of tahini. I boil the rice and lentils in the same pan. Caramelize some onions, add some spices, and you’ve got a steaming plate of Mujadara.
Combine lentils with some tomato purée and coconut milk, and you can create a luxurious curry. I expected Japanese stores to be lacking in the foreign spice department, but they sell almost every spice I need. You can easily find cumin, garam masala, turmeric, curry powder, and many more. Many stores even sell Nan. Not restaurant quality, but not bad.
Komatsuna
I had never heard of komatsuna (小松菜) before moving here. Then one day, I was looking for spinach and found this vegetable instead. We’ve been inseparable ever since.
From its looks and taste, you would be forgiven for thinking it’s a type of spinach. In fact, it’s commonly known as ‘Japanese mustard spinach’. But it’s actually related to cruciferous veggies like cabbage and broccoli.
Komatsuna tends to be cheaper, and it also has a good amount of bioavailable calcium. This is due to the low oxalate content. While spinach has oxalates that bind to calcium and can prevent proper absorption, komatsuna doesn’t have this problem.
It’s a good source of beta-carotene, which converts to vitamin A. It’s great to have another source in addition to carrots and sweet potatoes.
Chickpeas
Chickpeas (ひよこ豆) are probably the easiest ingredient to work with. They don’t have an overbearing flavor, so they can be added to almost any dish. I buy them cooked, so I can use them right away on days when I’m too hungry to wait for the lentils to boil.
While tiny cans are sold at typical supermarkets, you can get more decent amounts at the Yamaya or Gyomu Supermarket. Starting to see a pattern? I get most of my meatless protein sources at Yamaya, but they’re also available online if you don’t have any stores near you.
Chickpeas work as a quick snack when mixed with some mustard and garlic powder. They can be used to add substance to otherwise unsatisfying salads. Squash them with a fork and mix them with spices or avocado to create a spread.
Fortified foods
There are lots of tips on vegan and vegetarian nutrition online, but not all of them apply to those of us living in Japan. Especially when it comes to fortified foods.
While certain products are typically fortified in The States, this isn’t always the case in Japan. To make things worse, nutrition labels aren’t as detailed as they are in Western countries.
Tofu is often listed as a good source of calcium for vegans, but its calcium content depends on the coagulant. Tofu sold in the West is generally produced using calcium sulfate, whereas the Japanese tend to favor nigari. This comes with its own health benefits, but you can’t rely on it for calcium intake.
There has been an increase in plant-based milks lately. You can now find oat milk and almond milk at most typical supermarkets. Plant-based milk and orange juice are other sources often recommended for calcium supplementation. This doesn’t necessarily work in Japan.
I go for foreign brands when possible since local brands usually don’t fortify their plant milks. Most foreign plant milks contain a good amount of vitamins B12 and D, as well as calcium, and it’s clearly indicated on the package.
Finally, meatless diets can be lacking in iodine. Iodized salt is often suggested as the easiest solution. Unfortunately, iodized salt isn’t available here since the Japanese eat a lot of seaweed. Adding even more iodine to the diet of the average citizen could be dangerous. Kombu has insane amounts of iodine and wakame is a good alternative, but you might want to supplement to be sure.
The social aspect of meatless diets in Japan
I often joke about how many of my friends are Buddhist, and yet I’m the only one who abstains from meat.
While the Japanese don’t get it, they generally don’t get hostile about my eating habits. In that sense, we may have an easier time here than vegans in the West.
There is a theory that people often react so strongly when confronted with the idea of not eating meat because there is an underlying sense of guilt.
Especially the Dutch; we are an animal-loving nation with our animal ambulances and even a Party for the Animals in our government. When we are reminded that we are contributing to a cruel system like factory farming, it’s painful. Some people react by lashing out aggressively.
The Japanese have no qualms about eating meat. They’ll look at fish swimming in an aquarium and scream ‘Oishii!’. They are confused as to why I skip the ‘main course’ and wonder what on earth I do eat. But they are genuinely curious, not angry.
To be fair, they probably go easy on me because I’m a foreigner. I’ve heard they can be harsher when it comes to their vegan countrymen.
More meatless options
Not having meatless alternatives at restaurants may have been a blessing in disguise for me. It forced me to learn about cooking and nutrition, which is an essential part of taking care of yourself as an adult. On the other hand, convenient alternatives may help people reduce their meat intake.
While there were almost no meat alternatives when I first got here, I have been seeing them pop up here and there recently.
Now the Yamaya sells vegan bolognese, and my favorite supermarket stocks some imitation meat. Mos Burger has a plant-based option. Yayoi has a couple of soy meat dishes.
So while it’s still not nearly as straightforward as it is in The Netherlands, Japan seems to be warming up to meatless diets. Maybe the Japanese will go back to their Buddhist roots and make Buddhist monk cuisine accessible for all of us to enjoy.
A vegetarian can dream.
