Favorite dishes in Japan 2022

According to a survey conducted in 2022 in Japan, the most popular food among Japanese consumers was sushi, with almost 80 percent of respondents choosing the rolled food as a dish they liked. Yakiniku, also referred to as Korean barbecue, followed in second place over 72 percent of respondents named the meat dish a preferred food.

The topping makes the difference

While the most common forms served in Western restaurants are rolled (maki) and hand-pressed (nigiri) sushi with toppings tailored to consumers palette, the Japanese cuisine includes other forms like bite-sized rice balls in fried tofu (inarizushi), square-sized blocks (oshizushi), and fermented sushi (narezushi) among others.
The form served commonly depends on the topping and arrangement, with popular toppings like salmon and tuna being eaten as maki- or nigiri-zushi. On the other hand, delicate ingredients like salmon roe are usually put on top of sushi rice rolled in a strip of seaweed (gunkanmaki). The variety in ingredients makes sushi a popular dish in Japan, with food trends creating new popular toppings like avocado, tuna mayonnaise, and pork rib.

Food trends in Japan

Major drivers of consumer trends in Japan are social networking services (SNS). Current leading food trends like deep-fried chickens or bubble-tea are long-lasting, remaining a social trend for several years on large SNS platforms.
Contrasted to fast-spreading booms circulating on online media, food traditions tied to family occasions and holiday seasons are declining in Japan. Besides New Year, Christmas, family birthdays, and the Bean-Throwing Festival (setsubun), only a minority follow other large traditions as family structures are changing and the prevalence of foreign cuisine is increasing in the Japanese diet.