Veganism in Japan

[TorchdBallerina]

Hello everyone!
I am going to be moving to Japan in the near future, and I come to visit here quite often. It is just about impossible for me to eat vegan here unless I just buy raw fruits and veggies, cause as far as I know, veganism is not popular here. Probably the biggest group of vegans in Japan would be is some unknown, hard-to-find club who order all their food off the internet. I most likely won't have any luck, but if there is anyone out there who lives in Tokyo(or Shibuya, Chiba, Harajuku, anywhere close) or knows the area at all and can tell me where to find a restaurant or store with vegan food available, I would be soooooo grateful. I know of a few health food stores, but the city is just way too big to go to one store all the time that's an hour away. Thank you so much for listening.
Best Regards and love,
J

[drussell4801]

I'm not understanding why you're having trouble..

Are you saying that they don't have nonanimal products in the supermarket there?

[Sabster]

She might be refering to convenience foods and such which aren't necessarily available in all American supermarkets.... or can be hard to find. It really depends on the neighbourhood. That's one possibility anyway.

[tsunami]

I want to live in Japan soon as well.

Here is a very good site that should help. It has many listings of restaurants and healthfood stores thatare veg only, and/or veg/vegan friendly:

http://happycow.net/asia/japan/index.html

Hope this helps ^-^

[veganism_report]

You can download my report about being vegan in Japan here:
http://site.voila.fr/veganism/being_vegan_in_japan.doc

I hope that will be of some help to you.

Please all vegans fill out my questionnaire about veganism.
You can download this questionnaire as a .doc format (Microsoft word) here:
http://site.voila.fr/veganism/questionnaire.doc

Please send your answers to the following address: veganism_report@yahoo.com

Thanks,

Charlie

[gertvegan]

A wee Vegan guide to Japan is here.

[fluere]

Hello.I wonder this reply is too late for you.anyway,welcome to Japan.I`m Japanese vegan living in Setagaya(It`s not far from Shibuya and shinjyuku).Yes,actually it`s not easy to be vegetarian in japan.but I try to do it.shall we make a club for vegan? fortunately,there are some good cafes and restaurants in Tokyo.I want to make vegan friends and talk about it sometimes.if you give me an e-mail,I`ll tell you the information about vegetarian as much as I know.so,please let me know what do you want to know.I hope you live in japan with happy. good luck! etiroulf@yahoo.co.jp

[Wildflower]

This is so suprising to me because here in the US Asian resturaunts are the place to go to find vegan/vegetarian foods. Lots of veggies, rice and noodle dishes. Also, it was my understanding that cow's milk is not prevelant in Asia and that soymilk is used instead. I know fish is very popular there.

I guess this concerns me most, because lots of doctors seem to defend vegetarian/veganism by looking at the health history of Asia. For example, osteoporosis is apparently not prevelant in Asia, yet cow's milk consumption is so low. I have heard this used as historical proof that we don't need calcium from cow's milk to build bone mass and that it actually could deplete bone mass.

things like cancer rates, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc are always stated as being lower in Asia because asians eat a primarily plant based diet. Allthough not all vegetarian, meat consumption is secondary to vegetables, as a "garnish" by american standards.

Is this not true?

or are you talking about packaged foods? i have seen quite lot of my asian noodle bowls are made with stock from fish, beef or chicken. But i can find it with vegetable stock too.

[kriz]

One day I decided to lunch out in the Japanese district here in Los Angeles. I could not find a single thing to eat! They use plenty of vegetables, all right, but they are always soaked in beef stock, mixed with pork or some other funky meat stuff. It didn't matter how much explaining I did, nobody knew what vegan meant, and when I finally thought I might have found something it had fish stock!!!

[eve]

I agree, and have found myself totally unable to eat at any Japanese restaurant because of the ubiquitous meat and fish stock. Incidentally, wildflower, Asians in general are supposed to be lactose intolerant, so who knows what will happen in the near future now that Australia is exporting breeding cows to Japan and/or China (I forget which) to build up their dairy industries?

[Roxy]

I eat vegetable sushi and inari rolls and to my knowledge they are vegan.

[eve]

Seems that Chinese livestock buyers are becoming more demanding and more market savvy, as they continue to purchase record volumes of Australian dairy cattle. Meat and Livestock Australia says dairy cattle exports will top $100 million this year, mainly due to the Chinese market. (I wasn't sure at first if the cows were being exported to China or Japan, obviously it is to China)

[gertvegan]

The Vegan Japan website is just ...... HERE.

[eve]

Useful website gertvegan, thanks.

[veganblue]

I was googling for the word 'vegetus' and hit this link which was surprisingly in Japanese. Couldn't understand a thing! sooo asked Google to translate and the results were amusing - I love automated translaters


To translate, if you have the google toolbar, right-click (PC's) and scroll down to 'Googlebar items', and select 'Translate into English' (if that is you language preferrence).

Otherwise google "http://www.vegetus.jp" and there will be a light coloured [Translate] link - surf from there - see if you find the enormous tomato

[PolluxStar]

uhhh japanese food is more vegan that any other kind ?

[Kimberly]

Sushi rolls are my favourite, and here in Vancouver I've never run into a problem when I ask for, say, the vegetable roll with no mayo. When I make it myself, I use vegenaise, but really you can hardly tell the difference (there or not).

Maybe if you find Buddhist restaurants? There are several here that are completely vegan or almost all vegan.

[Karma]

Can anyone give me some advice? I am heading to Japan for 2 weeks (hooray...very excited!) in September and have just been reading about ryokans (traditional inns) where they said they serve breakfast. Options include vegetarian (with fish) or vegetarian (no fish but fish broth)! I can't even pick out broth! Everyone is telling me I'm going to find it really difficult to be vegan there. Is it true? Does anybody know?

[NorVegan]

Do you have to eat breakfast there?

What about going out, and buy some food on a grocery or something like that?

But if you cant do that, and you don’t want to or can stand on the barricades, what if you take a little white lie and say you are allergic to fish? It might even be true, if you haven’t eaten fish in a log time your body might react on the unknown “food”

What I normally do is that I say that I am a vegan, and haven’t eaten fish in many years, so I don’t want to because of ethic reasons, and it is a slight possibility that to get even a small amount of fish in my food can make me sick. I haven’t meet any that want to take the chance of giving me something fishy when they are worried about that I can have an allergic shock

I am just thinking loud, I have no experience of trawling to Japan, and I don’t know if anything of this can fit your situation and personality

[Vegantastic]

I think it will be difficult, but I don't know, because I never been there. But if there is a grocery, then you can get some fruit and vegetables... I think they eat there other things then fish right?

Maybe this will help:

http://www.happycow.net/asia/japan/index.html
and
http://www.lekkerplantaardig.net/vgp/26.htm

In the Netherlands there are some japanese restaurants where you can select the food and they will bake it in a pan for you. You must ask then that they clean it first for you...maybe these restaurants are also in Japan.

[tasha]

You can always buy some oatmeal to keep in your room and just bring some down and ask for a bowl of hot water.

This is what my hubby does as he is on the road all of the time.

[Karma]

Thanks for the advice guys.... happy cow looks very useful. I will print it out and take it with me!

[screamingcarrot]

hey karma,
i lived in japan for about 2.5 years..its true that they put fish broth into alot of things esp miso soup which you will probably get for breakfast aswell. they usually serve assorted pickled vegetables though which are divine and totally vegan, along with plain steamed rice and usually a sheet of seaweed.
theres loads of tofu products as well which are vegan, including excellent soya milk which is called tongyu in japanese (pron; torn-you)
you could always buy fruit for breakfast too!

btw make sure you try am amazing japanese sweet called ichigo daifuku which is a ball of pounded rice filled with sweet bean paste and a strawberry (vegan of course)..its a desert but i admit to eating them for breakfast on more than one occasion!!

have a great time in japan,
gambatte ne!

[Daniel]

The Japan Vegetarian Society

[Korn]

Hi,
most macrobiotic food is vegan. Since modern macrobiotics began in Japan, you might find macrobiotic cafes there?



http://www.macrobiotic.gr.jp/

[Karma]

The Japan Vegetarian Society

It's all in Japanese! I suppose that is going to be a recurring problem in Japan! Won't let me into the English version

Will try again later. Thanks though, looks like it might be useful.

[Karma]

Will look out for the rice, bean and strawberry thingy for breakfast or dessert! Thanks screamingcarrot...interesting combo!

[Karma]

Hi,
most macrobiotic food is vegan. Since modern macrobiotics began in Japan, you might find macrobiotic cafes there?



http://www.macrobiotic.gr.jp/

Umm...also all in japanese. This is going to be hard!?! So far I have learnt how to say yes, and thankyou. Could get me by, or into a lot of trouble!

[RachelJune]

Hey, thanks for this thread I've always wanted to live in Japan, teaching english there one day. Maybe sometime in the future... But I have wondered about the vegan thing. Doesn't look as bad now as I had been led to believe!

[Klutz]

I just got back from a two-day visa run to Fukuoka.

First, I was lucky enough to find a Korean restaurant near the Korean consulate where someone spoke Korean so I could order bibimbap (mixed veggies with rice) and list all the things I didn't want put in it.

Then I got lucky and found some triangle kimbap (er, no idea how to say that in English) behind a little sign that said kelp.

At the airport, I asked the woman behind information to write down "vegetarian" in Japanese for me (figured she wouldn't know vegan and since I know that the Japanese culture is one of telling you what you want to hear....didn't want her to just make something up) on a piece of paper.

Then I took that paper into every shop and asked them what they had that qualified. Only one shop had anything....that same triangle kimbap with kelp yum yum and a round rice patty like thing with bits of pickled ume (Japanese plum) in it. It smelled HORRIBLE, but tasted quite good.

Anyway, I've learned that if I ever leave Korea for a non-English speaking foreign country, I'd better first learn quite a bit of that language because it was as frustrating as heck to be wandering around and not being able to read anything or explain what I could and couldn't eat. I had brought a lot of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit in my backpack, but since that is what I've eaten for lunch every day for the past month, I got really tired of that really quickly.

I was wishing I had that "vegan passport" thing. But, when I found out about the visa run, there just wasn't enough time to get one ordered and shipped here.

Based on the experience in the airport, the Japanese are better able to tell what constitutes meat than the average Korean. No one tried to pass off ham, beef, chicken, pork, or any kind of egg on me. Once I established that I didn't eat fish, it was smooth sailing.

P.S. RachelJune, if you ever change your mind and decide to teach English in Korea instead, look me up!

[Muppet]

Hiya,

I used to live in Japan about 10 years ago working for Animal Refuge Kansai nr Osaka (visit if you get a chance - its a lovely place in the mountains and they always need dog walkers!).

I found it easy to eat vegan in Japan. I asked my Japanese friends to translate packet ingredients for me and found lots of lovely things, gorgeous tofu, crisps, those triangle rice "balls" (nori seaweed on the outside, rice and pickles on the inside).

Mmm, much nicer & healthier than a sandwich. Once you know the brand & what "colour" pacakaging you have to buy you will be ok.

OMG, the tofu was so fresh and lovely, deep fried or with sesame seeds. Mmm. and you can buy it in most supermarkets and eat it straight out the packet !

Fruit like apples, grapes and melons are very expensive and not very nice (perfect to look at and waxed etc). But if you eat local fruit like persimons & veg you will be fine.

A lot of the bakers sold french sticks that were vegan. Other bread may have animal products in it.

The only thing I messed up on was a packet of peanuts that I thought would be ok and later found out they were cooked in animal fat! Urghhh!

Have fun. I loved Japan and met some really nice people. They may be shocked that you are vegan but hopefully genuinely interested.

[Muppet]

Klutz - what is that lovely Korean dish - cabbage leaves in a red chilli sauce??
I ate this a few times in Japan and can't remember what it is called? It was lovely!!!

Just remembered - anyone going to Japan - check out Natto - fermented stringy soya bean that you eat with rice. You either love it or hate it!!

[Klutz]

Muppet, that would be kimchi. That's something I avoid because I never know when fish oil was added during the making. Asking a Korean never helps...most seem to have no idea which brands and kinds have fish oil added. Actually, no one I ever asked knew, but I'm assuming that someone out there could say, other than the kimchi maker, I mean.

[Muppet]

Thankyou Klutz.

What I ate was made by one of the sisters (Kyenan) who ran the Korean Animal Protection Society so Im sure it was vegetarian.

I've never been to their shelter, but they told me that the situation for animals in Korea is grim.

[Klutz]

I didn't realize that the sisters were vegetarian. A lot of "animal lovers" over here eat meat. Also, a lot of people don't consider seafood products to be meat. Or ham. Or eggs. So on.

Yes, the situation for animals in Korea IS grim. Just as it is in the States. If you talk to anyone running a humane no-kill shelter in the States, they'll have equally horrifying stories to tell you. I think the entire world is mad.

[eve]

Yes, you're right there Klutz, the whole world IS mad.
BTW, what are you doing in korea?

[Klutz]

I teach kindergarten at a private English immersion school. I've been here so long that the country in which I was born is now the foreign country to me.

[Geoff]

Thankyou Klutz.

What I ate was made by one of the sisters (Kyenan) who ran the Korean Animal Protection Society so Im sure it was vegetarian.

I've never been to their shelter, but they told me that the situation for animals in Korea is grim.

I'm planning to visit Kyenan in a couple of weeks when I'm in San Francisco. There's some lovely art work of hers at:
http://www.kyenankum.com/

[Muppet]

I didn't realize that the sisters were vegetarian. A lot of "animal lovers" over here eat meat. Also, a lot of people don't consider seafood products to be meat. Or ham. Or eggs. So on.

Yes, the situation for animals in Korea IS grim. Just as it is in the States. If you talk to anyone running a humane no-kill shelter in the States, they'll have equally horrifying stories to tell you. I think the entire world is mad.

.

I don't know that they are vegetarian, but she knew that I was Vegan so I hope I was't given something with fish in it?

Yes, I completely agree with you about the States... my friend lives in Texas and what she has told me about the killing of unwanted "pets" is really shocking. I know its bad enough in the UK, but the U.S. seems to be a million times worse.

I'm planning to visit Kyenan in a couple of weeks when I'm in San Francisco. There's some lovely art work of hers at:
http://www.kyenankum.com/

Wow, her work is fantastic.

When you see her please say hi from Gina from England. She might not remember me as we met over 10 years ago!
Tell her I was working at ARK Japan with Liz Oliver when the Kobe earthquake happened and we were rushed of our feet day & night!

[veggiewoman]

There is this supermarket , two minutes walk from Hibya train station.

It's an American supermarket , they also deliver aswell (or atl east did when I was there) just mind the dried ice they use though as it will stick to yoru fingers and burn them too.
ITs called NATIONAL AZABU , IN Hirro , 2minutes walk from HIBYA train station.
http://www.naturalhealingcenter.com/...upermarket.htm


They should have lots of stuff in there hopefully , if you can get there , or maybe if you are failry localish but cant make it there everyday , they may perhaps these days take phone orders, not sure though,

When I lived in Japan when I was vegetarian , I found eating out fairly easy, rice dishes , tofu , noodles etc, but didnt know how they were cooked etc, but I was a child at the time. But you should be able to easily find supermarkets that are good . Most will have English labelling on them.

Life wasn't difficult as a vegetarian in Japan, in fact sometimes I felt it was easier eatting out there than in UK. How it would be as a vegan, I won't know. I advice that you have the phrase
I AM A VEGAN , meaning I cannot eat any animal ingredients at all .

Soemthing like that , as this will help a lot rather than explaining it , becuase it will be very difficult becuase as a nation, been vegetarian and vegan in Japan is not as common as UK,USA etc.

You will be fine there as Japan is a very up to date country and cater a lot for the westerners that live there , they even put up milllions of Christmas decorations even though they dont celebrate it .
I even found , finding my way on the Tokyo underground/subway there A LOT LOT LOT easier than London underground!!!

Keep in touch when you do move there and feel free to send me any Private messages if you need assistance or anything , I lived out there for a long long time and treat it as my 2nd home , so if I dont know the answer ,the rest of my family probably might do.

Good luck

[MandyRanne]

I'm studying abroad next year in Nagoya and was wondering if there were any cool vegan restaurants (or something) I should check out. I also intend to travel many times to Kyoto. And I don't mean sushi dishes, coz I'm sure I will be living on California rolls (and the peanut butter I bring).

[Zero Cool]

Hello. For anyone who reads this post:

I'm a vegan living in Tokyo. Although its a bit hard, its not too bad once you get the hang of it. If anyones around here, feel free to contact me. I know some nice restaurants and some store products that are totally vegan. I also meet with a vegan group once a month for dinner and drinks. Kompai!

Earl

P.S. Mandy - You can buy peanut butter here. In Tokyo at least.

[Veryblue2]

Whilst in Japan I learnt very quickly that if there isn't meat in it, it's more than likely got fish/fish broth/fish flakes (bonito) in it, else it will have either dairy or egg. This was the case in at least 9.5 out of 10 pre-prepared/convenience food/restaurant items.

Considering the stereotype that 'the Japanese don't consume much dairy' I was shocked - from my experience there is milk, cream, cheese or egg in everything! Gross exaggeration I know... but most of the time I found it harder to avoid the dairy than the meat/fish.

I'm studying abroad next year in Nagoya and was wondering if there were any cool vegan restaurants (or something) I should check out. I also intend to travel many times to Kyoto. And I don't mean sushi dishes, coz I'm sure I will be living on California rolls (and the peanut butter I bring).

When in Kyoto, Cafe Peace is a must - vegan heaven! and they have a small 'shop' part too. See http://www.cafepeace.com/indexE.html

If there is one near you AM/PM is your friend! They do plain pre-cooked rice (in two sizes) which they microwave for you, a limited range of supersized giant fruit and I also found tubs of plain salad and salad with a little plastic pot of sweetcorn (I avoided the included oil based dressing - couldn't read the ingredients ). All the other salads contained an egg, if not other non-vegan friendly bits.

There is not much else on offer if you can't read Japanese or don't have an understanding interpreter friend. That is except the huge (and I mean huge!) selection of add hot water noodle bowls. Some come with the flavourings etc. separate (plastic wrapped) from the dried noodles, these are the ones to identify (I'm sure they must do just plain vegetable ones, but going on pictures alone I never struck lucky and even then wouldn't have been confident because it may have contained fish extract). Before I went I saved loads of vegan vegetable noodle flavour sachet packets and took them with me. Not the healthiest food in the world, but great for when you can't find anything else. Oh, and in the larger 7Eleven I was able to get hot rice and salad and in small 7Eleven and FamilyMart just salad.

I took my vegan passport book from the vegan society and a list of vegan friendly and non-vegan friendly food lists with translations, but found a customised version of the chart near the bottom of this page: http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/kondos/Vegetarians%20page.htm the best approach in restaurants.

DON'T let anything put you off going! It's an amazing place and you won't starve - a bowl of plain rice is available everywhere I recommend taking some emergency meal/snack bars though and a supply of vegan chocolate for the ' not noodles/plain rice again...' moments.

[catalina]

Just a small note about chocolate in Japan.

Whenever I'm in Japan, I've noticed that most chocolates, even the ones that clearly say "72% cocoa", or even higher percentages lie "85%" cocoa usually contain milk in them.

In Europe, most of the dark/plain chocolates tend to be vegan, but this is not the case in Japan. Unfortunately, the only way to know this is to get someone to read the ingredients to you if you can't read Japanese.

[Zero Cool]

I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so!

Well, I'll be heading back to Tokyo at the end of this months. I was living in Stockholm for a few months but missed Japan too much. Can't wait to go to all the great veggie restaurants that Tokyo has to offer. Hit me up if any of you are ever there. And if your a cute chick then dinners on me. he he.

Earl

[Roxy]

What a cute post!

[MandyRanne]

And if your a cute chick then dinners on me. he he.

Earl

I'll keep that in mind.

[theashleybeyer]

Anyone remotely close to Nagasaki?

[Sproutpout]

I found it relatively easy in Japan actually but I could read most of the labels and when I went to restaurants I stuck to the safe foods (no broth etc..)
Some days when i was really tired I just went to the noodle bars, zaru soba is awesome and ridiculously cheap!
Out and about you can get edamame, inari sushi, onigiri and salads plain or with an onion dressing thing in most convenience stores.
I also noticed alot of indian restaurants in tokyo, i went to one in asakusa, it has really good veggie options like daal and egg curry but there was a vegetable curry which was suitable for vegans.
Sushi bars... seaweed sushi (in akihabara i think...that was SO good!) inari rolls, kappa maki (cucumber rolls), daikon rolls etc...
I'm also kind of addicted to natto!!
Wasnt too bad. If you have cooking facilities available to you it's like anywhere else in the world, if you know how to cook it you're flying!
I saw a veggie restaurant in roppongi one day which i really wanted to try, might do that when i get back. It had all veg options in their sushi.
Also mos burger (popular chain over there) had a vegetable rice burger thing. Looked vegan to me, although you might need to look it up. And most sushi bars offered chips on their menus. westernized! :S

[Zero Cool]

It's true you can get by, by eating edamame and inari sushi when eating out, but with over 50 vegan restaurants in Tokyo alone why should you? Yes, I said 50, it's not a typo. And these restaurants serve some of the best food I have ever eaten. Macrobiotic, Raw, Buffets, Traditional Japanese, Pub style, Tokyo's got it all

If you too lazy to look them up and print out the maps(like me), then pick up a copy of the Japan Vegan Pocket guide:
http://www.veganjapan.net/pocketguide-e.html

And for news, events and other cool articles check out:
http://vegetokyo.com/

And last but not least, join the Tokyo Vegan Meet-up group at meetup.com. I recently became the organizer of the group.
http://vegan.meetup.com/389/

I'm afraid I have to withdraw my earlier coment about buying dinner for you if your a cute girl. I'm happly taken now. Sorry ladies.

Yokoso!

[vegan-japan]

A vegan support group has started up, here; Vegan Society of Japan (vegan.jp).

If you are in Japan during mid-July, we have our first event; How to Eat to Survive – Japan’s First Vegan Film Festival Kyoto on Sunday July 19 2009 at the Koryu Kaikan Hall, Hitomachi, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto which we expect 300 people to attend. In October, we will be organizing the annual Vegan and Vegetarian Festival in Kyoto. About 5,000 people come to it. It has always been entirely vegan.

We also sell and post internationally Herwin Walravens's book: Japan Vegan Restaurant Pocketguide.

Depending on whether you are traveling or residing, it might be useful to know; Warabe Mura and Alishan Organic Center, as they have good support for English speakers. Most local "Co-op" chain supermarkets will have a good quality supply of locally grown foods and vegan staples.

There is a healthy vegan, vegetarian and macrobiotic underground in Japan. Most major cities will have at least one veggie friendly cafe and a few European style delis where you will recognize regular foods. Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo have many more.

On the road, you will at least be able to survive at udon and soba (noodle) shops if you avoid the dashi (dip) and just use the shoyu instead. We recommend you copy and bring the Japanese pages from the Vegan passport as not many Japanese will recognize the word vegan.

If you let us know where you plan to go, perhaps we can make recommendations. The most sublime vegan experience is probably visting Koyasan (Mount Koya) which is about 45 minutes from Kansai (Osaka) airport in the mountains, a 1500 year old temple complex where you stay in a temple inn and they serve "shojin ryori" (vegan temple food).

The oldest vegetarian/vegan restaurant in Japan (in Kyoto) is about 460 years old.

[vegan-japan]

It is very interesting to read your posts, vegan-japan, I really appreciate your perspective, because as I'm sure you're aware, our impression of Japan and Japanese culture has been formed by biassed representations in our media. For example, throughout the Thatcher years, Japan was held up as an example of high-tech industrial and economic growth and dedication to hard work that we in the UK were encouraged to emulate and compete against. Now history has shown that the period of rapid expansion actually led to an extended period of economic difficulties, deflation etc.

I have always admired the Japanese elevation of simplicity and domesticity to an artform and the buddhist asceticism and avowal of animal produce. A book which has really inspired me is 'The Book of Tofu' by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi. They toured Japan searching out traditional farmhouse tofu makers and describe the processes in the book. It seems they have been largely responsible for bringing more widespread appreciation of tofu, soymilk, soy sauce and miso to the west. It's good to know that traditional tofu makers have survived and continue to thrive in Japan.

It's kind of ironic that at the same time as western consumption habits are being embraced by the east, eastern frugality is (hopefully) gaining adherents in the west.

In the UK, you also have Paul Jones who really started the Tofu industry there, in my opinion. He was part of the early Macrobiotic scene inspired by George Ohsawa. It interesting but I think people do not realise just how much of an influence Japanese dietary culture has had on the Western wholefood scene, in the USA (through Michio Kushi) and in the UK through Craig and Greg Sams. You can read about it here, History of Macrobiotics Movement and here, Greg Sams wholefood history. In short, it would not have happened without the Japanese pioneers and about 70 to 80% of your/our diet was brought in or influenced by them.

The Japan you speak about has almost been destroyed entirely post-WWII although a tiny small wholefood, LOHAS, macrobiotic movement is retracing its steps.

For vegans though, the one beneficial thing that does remain are a large number of small, craft level businesses making traditional vegan foods. Not because they are "vegan" (the owners are not) but just because that is what they always made; many misos, many tofus, sesame tofus, grain syrups, rice wines, naturally sweet rice pudding (amazake), sticky rice buns (mochi), noodles, pickles, seaweeds, and many other rare items that you will not even have dreamt of, e.g. fern or seaweed jellies, mountain yam or kudzu cream products, wild plants and roots, 'sweet charcoal bamboo' (delicious and good for digestion) etc. Almost all of the traditional sweets are vegan by default.

These still exist in every town or city and make Japan a very special place to visit, and learn from, for vegans. The variety of foods is very wide.

We should also look back to the 150 odd years of the Edo Period as a study of how to create a high sustainable society. Although not 100% vegan, Edo was a plant-based and heavily recycling-based society. It would have been 80 ... 90% or more a vegan society. And, at that time, Edo (Tokyo) was the largest and probably the most civilised city in the world. Japan has very few energy resources and so it was an exceptionally energy efficient society.

Traveling around Japan, you notice one thing immediately. There are hardly any animals in the fields or on the land at all. There is just no room for them. Every parcel of land is either used for plant-based agriculture (small fields of rice growing even in the cities), or it is mountain. Where it is mountain, you might find terraces of citrus and fruit growing. There are only a very few places animals are kept. This is an unspoken joy for vegans.

Unfortunately, part of the American plans to dominate the Pacific-Asian region included turning the region into consumers for American products and American-style unsustainable lifestyles. A diet and lifestyle Japan itself cannot sustain because of a lack of natural resources.

What I mean specifically here is a market for American and then Australasian foods; beef, dairy and pork industries. Unfortunately that means many of the simple foods you know in Europe are full of dairy ... bread is almost universally inedible. it is full of everything. As a relative, it is worth bearing in mind that a memorial to the first cow killed for beef for Townsend Harris, was created only as late as the mid-1800s.

The other killer has been both that same Japanese technology of which you speak and the fruit of the economic bubble period. Specifically, advances in refrigeration which allowed industrial fishing boats to travel into deep sea and all around the world but that is only since the 70s/80s. Japanese consumption of fish is not triple that of European countries and it is very hard to avoid. Fish (dried bonito or sauce) is in everything, quite unnecessarily.

It is often easier to eat in mountain areas where they use mushrooms and beans for stock instead.

Without knowing the spoken and written language, it is very hard for vegans to avoid animal products. Yes, there are a growing number of cafes in the main cities but these most are small, shut early, appear and disappear rapidly and English is not still not spoken.

Sadly, most Japanese have no concept of what the word vegan means. Something we hope to change! Nor even vegetarian ... thanks to all the confusion created by fish eaters. Like most other Asian nations, "pork" is not "meat" (meat is beef). You might struggle to get noodles without fish dashi, only to discover lumps of fish cake on top of it ... because "that is what they do".

You need to be very, very, very specific!

Unlike America, where you can 'get what you want if you pay for it', in Japan, restaurants and ryokans (small hotels) tend to be very rigid about what they prepare and people unused to improvising. They just never get asked to. They seem to have no idea what to do.

Many Japanese vegans find it easier just to tell them they have allergies and cannot eat stuff ... that seems to work. Owners are afraid of being sued or damaging their reputation by making some sick. In general, for many reasons, the ethical aspect of veganism is not understood. "Vegan", as in Shojin Ryori (temple food) is something you do at the temple on special, perhaps once in a life time, occasions ... even the monks are not vegan or vegetarian.

Animal rights tend not to be discussed, nor explored, by the heavily controlled media for the "fear of causing offense". it is probably fair to say there is very little awareness of the idea ... but also very little need for them at a general level ... because there are relatively few industrial scale abuses unlike in the West (little history of animal husbandry). The suffering exists but back in the nations where the food (e.g. USA) or fur (e.g. China) is imported from. It is a very distant thing.

There is also the "fear of ideologies" ... a sort of social taboo at holding strong, definite opinions that again goes back to the Post-War period and before. 100% veganism would be "offensive". One is expected to be flexible, "Japanese" first, and show respect to elders and superiors. To refuse would be too hard and insulting.

This means many vegans in Japan are vegans by their desire but when they go out they find it very difficult not to share in shared meals, e.g. picking vegetables out of stock pots. At least the rice is OK to eat but it is not enough ... Personally, I call them 'home vegans'. People in the West, who have far more personal liberties, might not understand just how difficult it is and what the implications of being social ostracised are.

Another problem also exists around the whole whale and dolphin issue. Most Japanese are entirely unaware of it and do not, in fact, eat either. Whale meat was only really introduced as a widespread food in the immediate period after WWII when there was very little food and a lot of starvation. It has a sentimental value for some of the old people a bit like, say, bananas would for Europeans during the Post-rationing period.

Unfortunately, many activists in the West play the race card. Their voices are colored by institutionalised racism towards Japanese. A people who, nowadays, have no responsibility at all for the crimes of the past whatsoever (their grandparents were not even born when they happened).

This makes the Japanese defensive, even vegan and vegetarians, and makes it very easy for the establishment to deflect valid criticisms. They can just say it is more typical racism and ignore it. Quite rightly, they say, "how can 'the West' criticise us for eating whale when you kill 100,000s of times more cattle?" etc.

There is no ability for them to see the difference between Eco- and AR motivated voices in the West and the political and financial establishment, e.g. the meat industry, and no reason to. In my opinion, and partly from my own experience, the anti-whale and anti-dolphin movement is being defeated NOT by the whaling industry but by the use of racism in the attack.

The effects of all this makes promoting AR (and hard core veganism) a very difficult equation.

Historically, one also has to realise that Japan was only violently opened up to the West, via Commodore Perry, for the sake of the Western, read American, whaling industries. It was the wasteful whaling industries of the West that over-fished the Japan Sea and drove Japanese whalers out into deeper waters. Before that, Japanese whaling was purely at an indigenous level, like the Inuits, and used all of the animal not just its oil.

This is just a personal observation, but one that I do not think has been identified, as to why historically and culturally the whaling issue is such a difficult issue between East and West.

It would help if vegans and AR people in the West did not attack "Japan" because there are Japanese vegans and AR people in Japan who feel exactly the same way about it.

I hope this goes a little further to let people see and understand what is going on in Vegan Japan.