FraisGout: Supermarkets

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Vegan Products Available In Japanese Supermarkets

Shopping for vegan food in Japan isn’t easy, but if you know what to look out for, then even the humblest supermarket can yield some delicious plant-based treats.

Sometimes buying vegan products in Japanese supermarkets can feel like an impossible task. Plant-based diets are far from mainstream, and many Japanese people are unfamiliar with what the word ‘vegan’ actually means. Even Japanese dishes centered on plant-based ingredients are frequently seasoned with dashi (fish stock) and other ingredients derived from animal products.

All of this can make shopping for vegan food in Japanese supermarkets a considerable challenge, especially since some vegan-friendly products are not labeled as such. But with a little research, it is possible to find what you’re looking for. This guide to vegan supermarket shopping is here to get you started.

Where To Shop For Vegan Food Products

Vegan Products Available In Most Japanese Supermarkets

There are a few go-to supermarkets and food stores in Japan that all vegans should know.

Natural House: An organic supermarket chain with a wider range of vegan ingredients and ready meals than mainstream supermarkets.
Natural Lawson: A branch of Lawson convenience stores featuring products made from natural ingredients, including vegan snacks.
Import and International stores: Stores such as Bio c’ Bon, Seijo Ishii, Kaldi Coffee and Jupiter Coffee are great places to find vegan snacks and ingredients.
Online stores: Most of the above stores offer online shopping and home delivery, while websites like iHerb and Amazon Japan are also great places to source vegan food products.

Check out our article that introduces online shops to buy vegan food for more.

Supermarket Staples

Natto Vegan Products Available In Most Japanese Supermarkets

When you’re unable to access a more vegan-friendly food store like the ones listed above, there are still plenty of vegan staples you can pick up at mainstream Japanese supermarket chains like Aeon, Seiyu and Gyomu Super. Here are a few plant-based food items you can stock up on at most Japanese supermarkets.

Tofu and tempeh
Mixed beans and nuts
Soy milk, soy yogurt, soy ice cream
Almond milk and oat milk
Miso soup (check the label to make sure it doesn’t contain fish stock)
Rice, noodles and pasta
Fresh fruits and vegetables
Soy sauce, mirin and wine vinegar

Ready-made/Pre-made Vegan Products

While home cooking is a necessary part of the vegan lifestyle in Japan, there will always be days when you don’t feel like making a recipe from scratch. It can be very difficult to find ready-made vegan foods outside of organic or import stores, but there are still a few plant-based meals, snacks and sides at most supermarkets that are suitable for vegans.

The blog Is it Vegan? Japan and the Facebook group Vegan Supermarket Finds in Japan are great resources for scouting these elusive vegan-friendly products. Here’s a roundup of some of the most widely available.

Curries

Japanese curries are a home-cooking classic, and many curry brands sell plant-based products. The easiest vegan curries to find are allergen-free varieties such as Curry Prince Vegetable and Chickpea Curry, which are aimed at children with allergies. If these are a little mild for your taste, you can always add a dash of S&B Spicy Curry Powder, which is widely available and completely vegan!

Minasama Omitsuki Chickpea and Vegetable Chana Masala Curry Vegan Products Japanese Supermarkets

Minasama Omitsuki Chickpea and Vegetable Chana Masala Curry | ¥192

Topvalu Curry Made with Vegetables and Rice Puree | ¥192

Curry Prince Vegetable and Chickpea Curry | ¥140

S&B Spicy Curry Powder | ¥578

Pre-made Ingredients and Ramen

Vegan-ready meals are not always easy to find, but one exception is Japchae, a Korean dish of vegetables and glass noodles that is often totally plant-based. Miso ramen and soups can also be made without animal products, but be sure to check the packaging carefully. If full-ready meals aren’t available, you can sometimes find sauce packets that are suitable for vegans instead.

Marukome Daizu Labo Japchae | ¥410 approx.

Coop Miso Ramen Vegan Products Japanese Supermarkets

Coop Miso Ramen | ¥267

Meat Substitutes

Soy meat is sold widely in Japanese supermarkets, but not all meat substitutes are created equal. Some are made with egg or other animal products, so look out for these totally plant-based alternatives.

Marukome Soy Meat Mince Type | ¥300

Asahico Tofu Protein Minced Meat | ¥321

Topvalu Vegetive Soybean Mince Vegan Products Japanese Supermarkets

Topvalu Vegetive Soybean Mince | ¥198

Pizzas, Naans and Tortillas

While vegan pizzas complete with toppings are rare in Japanese supermarkets, you can easily pick up a vegan pizza base and make your own, especially with Italian-style tomato sauces sold in most supermarkets and soy-based cheese alternatives on the rise. Vegan naan breads and tortillas are also easy to find.

Del Sol Vegetable Pizza Vegan Products Japanese Supermarkets

Del Sol Vegetable Pizza | ¥413

Del Sol Napoli Style Pizza Crust | ¥376

Beyond Tofu Pizza Shred Vegan Products Japanese Supermarkets

Beyond Tofu Pizza Shred | ¥387

Topvalu Hand Stretched Naan | ¥198

Topvalu Tortillas | ¥258

Frozen Foods

You can find plenty of potato-based sides, such as French fries and hash browns, in the frozen aisles of most Japanese supermarkets. Some frozen mochi (rice cake) products are also suitable for vegans.

Topvalu Shoestring French Fries | ¥348

Topvalu Lightly Salted Hokkaido Potato Hash | ¥321

Gyomu Supa Mini Rosti | ¥250 approx.

Gyomu Supa Thinly Baked Mochi with Spring Onion Vegan Products Japanese Supermarkets

Gyomu Supa Thinly Baked Mochi with Spring Onion | ¥550 approx.

Snacks

Vegan snacks are plentiful at most Japanese supermarkets and convenience stores. Potato chips that are plain salted or nori shio (seaweed salt) flavor are usually vegan-friendly, along with mixed nuts, dried fruit and dried sweet potato sticks. Plant-based Soyjoy bars are also vegan (be careful to avoid the ordinary Soyjoy bars, which contain dairy), along with plenty of other sweet treats.

Calbee Lightly Salted Potato Chips 60g | ¥172

Amanoya Bite-Sized Kabukiage 72g | ¥108

Calbee Miino 28g | ¥148

Soyjoy Plant-Based | ¥130

Nabisco Oreos 10 pcs Vegan Products Japanese Supermarkets

Nabisco Oreos 10 pcs | ¥178

Searching for vegan products in Japanese supermarkets can be daunting, but with the right resources and a little patience, you can find many great vegan ingredients.

Korean Soju Popular in Vietnamese Supermarkets and Bars “I Drink It Twice a Month”

Local consumers drinking fruit soju at a Jinro BBQ store near Ta Hien Beer Street in Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, Vietnam on June 10. / Hanoi Joint Reporting Team

“It’s my friend’s birthday so we’re all gathered together to celebrate. We all like fruit soju so we’re drinking it, but I like it best when it’s served with meat.”

This is what college student Bu Thi Tam (21), whom we met at a restaurant near Ta Hien Beer Street in Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, Vietnam, said on June 10. Tam was eating with friends at a restaurant selling Korean barbecue such as samgyeopsal, and drinking fruit soju such as Cheongpodo Eiseul. The way they were drinking soju while clinking glasses in the middle of the grill looked no different from Korean consumers.

Sweat said, "I was introduced to soju a few years ago by an acquaintance, and now I drink soju about twice a month." He also said, "My face gets red easily when I drink alcohol, but regular soju has a high alcohol content, but fruit soju has a low alcohol content, so I don't have to worry about that, which is good."

Even in the heat, a tasting and promotional event is held while wearing a ‘toad mask’

On Tahien Beer Street, it was not hard to find people enjoying fruit soju like sweat. Some people enjoyed fruit soju with salad or French fries instead of Korean food, and there were also people drinking it with Vietnamese noodles or rice dishes.

On the streets lined with numerous shops, various fruit-flavored sojus, from green grapes to peaches, strawberries, plums, and grapefruits, were placed on tables. The soju brand names, all written in Korean, and the signs written in Korean here and there created a Korean atmosphere even in the exotic Vietnamese streetscape.

“I drink a lot of soju in the US, so it’s interesting to see it in Vietnam,” said Yoo Da-young (22), a Korean-American who came to visit with friends in the US. “I like grape-flavored soju, and all my friends like it too.” Yoo visited Vietnam with two friends of different races.

Ta Hien Beer Street is a place where Hite Jinro is actively promoting entertainment channels to achieve its global strategy of ‘popularizing Jinro.’ This is because it is one of the representative tourist destinations visited by locals as well as 4 million foreign tourists who visit Hanoi every year.

On this day, despite the hot weather of nearly 30 degrees, people wearing toad masks, the symbol of Hite Jinro, were seen walking around Beer Street, offering tastings and promotional events. When you ordered soju at the store, they gave you fans, soju glasses, and dolls, and they even danced to music.

Cho Seong-gyun, head of Hite Jinro Vietnam, said, “Until recently, out of the 78 restaurants selling alcohol on this street, not a single one sold soju,” adding, “Now, 64 of them are selling soju as we are running promotional events along with sales.”

Hite Jinro plans to increase sales in the Vietnamese market through sales through entertainment channels.

Up until now, they have achieved success by focusing on sales through home channels, but with a 95% occupancy rate based on supermarkets, they have decided that attacking the entertainment market is essential for continued sales growth.

Hwang Jeong-ho, executive director of HiteJinro, also said, “In 2016, we started to target household channels through collaboration with distributors under the goal of globalizing soju, and most of our products are currently available through distributors,” and added, “Now is the time to shorten the product turnover cycle in household channels by targeting entertainment channels.” The idea is to expand the size of household channels by allowing more Vietnamese consumers to experience products in entertainment channels.

In fact, you can easily find Hite Jinro Soju products in supermarkets in Hanoi. At the Fuji Mart in Dong Da District, Hanoi, which has a high percentage of locals, you can even see a permanent display of Hite Jinro Soju products.

A person wearing a toad mask, the symbol of Hite Jinro, and a salesperson are holding a sales event at Ta Hien Beer Street in Hanoi, Vietnam on June 10. / Reporter Yang Beom-su

Localized prices due to local factory production

In addition to fruit soju products, they also sold regular soju products such as Chamisul and Jinro Is Back, and gift sets consisting of soju also caught the eye. Yoon Hyun-sik, team leader of Hite Jinro Vietnam, said, “Fuji Mart is a supermarket jointly operated by the Vietnamese BRG Group and the Japanese company Sumitomo, but Hite Jinro soju is available in all 11 stores.”

In addition to Hite Jinro products, Fuji Mart also stocked soju products from various companies. There were sojus made by Korean companies, such as Him Soju and Damso Soju made by Korea Apples, and Ara Soju made by Bohae Brewing, but there were also yogurt-flavored sojus and 40-proof liquors made by Thailand's TAWANDANG, sold in green bottles.

The soju in question was being sold for 46,500-61,500 dong (about 2,500-3,300 won), which is 230-1,030 won cheaper per bottle compared to Hite Jinro's product, which is being sold for 65,000 dong (about 3,530 won).

Team Leader Yoon explained, “Although our products are a bit more expensive than those of other companies, we are maintaining a high market share thanks to our brand power.” He added, “The Vietnamese soju market is not large, but we account for about 70% of the market.”

According to market research firm Euromonitor, soju’s share of the Vietnamese liquor market in terms of retail sales remained at 0.7% last year. Although the figure has increased slightly each year from 0.2% in 2019, it is still less than 1%.

However, the Vietnamese soju market continued to grow despite the slowdown in the liquor market growth last year. Last year, the Vietnamese liquor market size was 6.8796 trillion won, down 5% from the previous year, while the soju market increased by 14% to 49.1 billion won.

The size of Vietnam's soju market has been growing at an average annual rate of 44% from KRW 11.5 billion in 2019, and Euromonitor forecasts that it will grow at an average annual rate of 10% to KRW 72.8 billion by 2027. During the same period, the Vietnamese liquor market is estimated to grow to approximately KRW 10 trillion.

'JINRO' expands soju, builds local factories, localizes prices

Hite Jinro plans to localize its soju brand through a “Jinro popularization” strategy to promote the growth of the Vietnamese soju market and achieve a higher market share. The plan is to build a local production plant in the Thai Binh Special Economic Zone in Vietnam while making Jinro more widely known to consumers.

Executive Director Hwang said, “Up until now, we intended not to make any significant external differences with the various soju products on the Vietnamese market in order to promote the image that ‘green bottled liquor is soju. ’ Now, we plan to clearly position the Jinro brand so that consumers can recognize the brand.”

HiteJinro plans to expand Jinro Soju, currently sold in Japan, to the entire world in October. Unlike Chamisul or Jinro Is Back, Jinro Soju is characterized by the red letters “JINRO” on the product label.

In the long term, the company plans to accelerate its market penetration through a local factory in Vietnam. Starting in the second quarter of 2026, the company plans to produce 1 million cases (20 million bottles) of fruit soju annually at a local soju factory in Vietnam and supply it at a localized price.

Executive Director Hwang Jeong-ho said, “In the early days of soju exports, we sold it to foreign consumers who worked in Korea, but they did not buy it because it was more expensive than in Korea.” He continued, “Due to logistics costs and taxes, it can be chosen by consumers even if it is sold at 20,000 won per bottle, but it fundamentally has to match the exchange value that consumers think of.” He added, “The basic concept of overseas factories is to popularize Jinro while returning the benefits of local production to consumers,” and “Localizing product prices is something we have to do to expand the market.”