A Japan Resident’s Guide to the Most Iconic and Giftable Japanese Snacks

Ask anyone who lives in Japan where they buy snacks, and you’ll probably hear one of three answers: FamilyMart, 7-Eleven or Lawson. When it comes to satisfying cravings in daily life, there’s just no place like the nearest konbini — aka convenience store.

Of course, not all Japanese snacks are found at the konbini. Some of the best bites are available as from local market streets or during festivals. And then there are the omiyage boxes containing beautifully packaged snacks meant to be taken home and shared as a souvenir of your travels.

Keep reading for a quick primer on the most important Japanese snacks to know before your next trip to Tokyo, Kyoto and beyond.

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Iconic Japanese Packaged Snacks

First, a quick list of some of Japan’s best or most popular packaged snacks. Many are available at the konbini, though a few may require a quick detour to the nearest supermarket, department store or iconic superstore Don Quijote.

Sweet Japanese snacks include:

• HI-CHEW candies, especially the Ramune flavor, which mimics a popular soda pop
• Kaju grape gummies.
• Pocky.
• Seasonal Kit Kat flavors, like wasabi, sakura or matcha.
• Dried umeboshi (pickled plum).
• Black Thunder chocolate bars.

And salty snacks:

• Jagarico potato sticks.
• Baby Star dried ramen snack.
• Kaki no tane (a mix of peanuts and rice crackers often served with beer).
• Aerial cheddar four-layer chips.
• Senbei rice crackers (the sweet-and-saltyYuki no Yado is my favorite iteration).
• Dried shredded squid.

Konbini-Specific Snacks

If you’re heading out for konbini snacks for the first time, skip Minimart or Seicomart and visit one of the big three. Most people who live here have an all-time favorite — though some of us visit specific convenience store chains for specific snacks.

FamilyMart

FamilyMart, pronounced “famima,” is my personal go-to, if only because it’s just around the corner and stocks the widest selection of canned mocktails. FamilyMart’s most iconic offering is Famichiki, a boneless fried chicken cutlet. Many people also love the brand’s souffle milk puddings and pizzaman, a hot steamed bun filled with marinara sauce and cheese. Pizzaman is great for when you want something piping hot, rather than prepackaged like salt-and-nori potato chips or chocolate-covered peanut clusters.

7-Eleven

Called “sebun” locally, 7-Eleven is my husband’s favorite konbini. He pops by almost daily for tuna mayo onigiri (a triangular rice ball wrapped in seaweed) and the store’s famously jammy hard-boiled egg. It’s a widely held belief that 7-Eleven also stocks the best egg salad sandwiches. Sounds boring, but the filling is creamy, and the bread is so soft. One of my 7-Eleven favorites is a smoothie. Grab one of the cups of frozen fruit from the freezer section, pay, then scan the cup’s barcode at the blender near the doors to unlock and use the machine.

Lawson

Lawson is the king of more specialized or premium snack options. If you can find a Natural Lawson, you’ll have more than enough organic, gluten-free or healthy snacks to choose from. Lawson has its own line of seasonal desserts, along with classics like fluffy cream rolls and smooth custard puddings. This convenience store chain also created the Akuma Onigiri (devil’s onigiri), in which the rice is mixed with dashi and tempura flakes.

Japanese Street Snacks

If you’re traveling around Japan, you’ll notice a wide variety of regional food specialties. But there are a few snacks that can be found in many tourist centers, most covered market streets and during festivals:

• Dango, skewers of chewy rice flour dumplings often slathered in sticky soy sauce.
• Takoyaki, fried balls of battered octopus.
• Taiyaki, fish-shaped pastries traditionally filled with red bean paste.
• Freshly made pressed squid crackers.

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Omiyage: Special Snacks to Take Home

At any tourist destination or major train station in Japan, you will see beautiful and fun omiyage boxes. These aren’t just for foreign tourists either. Omiyage means souvenir, but these souvenirs are meant as return gifts to share a bit of your travels with friends, family or coworkers. This is a common practice in Japan.

The very best omiyage boxes feature hyper-local specialties. Some examples include:

• In the hot springs region of Hakone, it’s common to find beautifully packaged sulfur-steamed black eggs or the more palatable and more packable chocolate eggs made to look like the eggs.
• Nikko, the town at the entrance of Nikko National Park, is known for yuba, or tofu skin. Since Nikko is also home to the original “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” monkey trio, you can also find traditional sweets shaped like monkey faces.
• In Hokkaido, Japan’s primary dairy-producing region, omiyage treats may include cheese tarts, biscuits and sweets made with Hokkaido butter.

Good news for the procrastinators: Japan’s major airports also have shops selling omiyage like Tokyo Banana (a cream-filled cake shaped like a banana), specialty chocolates and lots of loved boxes of pastries filled with sweet azuki bean paste.

Which is your favorite Japanese snack, or which one you would you like to try? Tell us in the comments.

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Featured image: Different flavors of Jagarico potato sticks. Photo courtesy of Leandra Beabout.

Leandra Beabout

Leandra is an American freelance writer based in Japan. She covers travel and health for several online and print publications. When she’s not checking out a new hotel, exploring an unfamiliar town or reading clinical studies for work, you can find her plotting the next adventure or curled up with a thriller and black coffee or white wine.