Is Tokyo vegan-friendly? Where and how can you find vegan food in Tokyo?
Every now and again I see people posting on social media that they couldn’t find anything vegan to eat on their trip to Tokyo.
I’m always puzzled by these posts, given that there are over 100 vegan restaurants in Tokyo.
Tokyo is huge, which inevitably means that it takes a bit of planning and preparation to visit Tokyo as a vegan.
In this guide I share my experience on how to find vegan food in Tokyo after my visiting Tokyo twice as a vegan.
Table of contents
Vegan food in Tokyo guide
If you prepare, you’ll have a fun and 100% vegan-friendly trip to Tokyo.
How to find vegan restaurants in Tokyo
I’m going to share tips and tools on veganism in Tokyo, rather than lists of restaurants, because you can easily find those lists on Happy Cow.
Happy Cow is and has always been the most helpful app for vegan travel.
I’ve travelled with it as a vegan for many years now.
It’s a free app that lists and maps vegan restaurants, plus vegetarian and vegan-friendly places to eat, cafes, bakeries, health stores, etc.
The interface is user-friendly and shows you everything you need to know: opening hours, links, photos, reviews, price range.
Most of the information is added and updated by app users, so you get real reviews and photos, and can add some yourself.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to plan an itinerary for every day of your trip, open the map on the Happy Cow map and see which restaurants you can find that can fit into your itinerary.
What if you don’t like to plan ahead?
If you dislike planning, Happy Cow still provides a good solution for finding vegan food in Tokyo.
Say you find yourself somewhere in Tokyo and start to feel hungry, just open the app and it will show you all the places to eat nearby by distance.
You can also do the same on Google Maps by typing “vegan” into the search bar.
However, the information on Happy Cow is much better organised in my experience, thanks to the filters on the app.
You can filter results by vegan, vegetarian, and vegan options (the latter refers to omnivore places that also cater for vegans).
The vegan options filter is especially useful when you travel with other people who don’t want to go to vegan or vegetarian places.
There are many other filters like ice cream, food trucks, farmers’ markets and so on. You can really niche down.
Vegan-friendly shops in Tokyo
There are a few shops with a good selection of vegan food in Tokyo.
They’re not exclusively vegan but they do carry plenty of vegan snacks, packaged goods, and pantry items.
Natural Lawson is a chain store. Lawson is a convenience store you’ll see everywhere in Japan, but its healthy version, Natural Lawson, is found mainly in Tokyo and few other prefectures.
There’s a nice vegan-friendly range of products at these shops. I found vegan protein bars, vegan ice cream, and vegan pot noodles, among other things. The selection varies between branches.
Bio C Bon is another chain that offers some vegan food in Tokyo. It’s a wholefood store, so you can expect to find organic produce. They stock vegan ready-made meals (I found a vegan bento box there), and ingredients for cooking.
Ambika Veg & Vegan Shop Shinokubo (Shinjuku) is an Indian-focused vegetarian and vegan grocery shop. Everything is vegetarian, with many vegan items.
Vegan snacks in Japan
When I looked for vegan food in Tokyo, I found it very easy to eat out at vegan restaurants. What was a bit more tricky though was finding snacks for in between meals.
I often wanted something small to nibble on rather than an entire meal. You need some extra energy in such a big city.
Fruit and nuts are a safe bet when you need a snack. Just make sure the nuts aren’t flavoured because most flavoured nuts I found contained dairy.
I found several brands of vegan fruit and protein bars that came in handy on some afternoons. You won’t find them at every shop and they’re not very common (yet) but Natural Lawson has some options that you can stock on and just carry in your day bag with you.
This is probably the time to mention that eating while walking on the street is considered impolite in Japan, as is eating on the metro.
If you want to have your snack, find a bench, preferably in a park, sit down and have it there.
My tips on finding vegan food in Tokyo and Japan
In my experience, the online resources about vegan food in Tokyo and about veganism in Japan in general are priceless, especially groups where you can consult other vegans.
“Is it vegan – Japan” website and group
The Is it vegan – Japan blog is an excellent resource for vegans in Japan.
It has a companion Facebook group by the same name.
Both the site and the group have great tips, especially on specific products, supermarket finds, snacks at convenience stores, cruelty-free products, etc.
On the Facebook group you can also ask questions and get up to date info.
When I wasn’t sure about whether a snack I found at the supermarket was vegan, I took a picture of the ingredients and posted it on the group. I soon got a reply and a confirmation that it was indeed vegan.
Vegan Japan Facebook groups
Vegan Japan ヴィーガン日本 and Vegan Travel Japan are friendly and useful groups by fellow vegans.
You can ask questions, see other people’s recommendations, and of course share your own.
Reading ingredient labels in Japanese
Japanese products have ingredient labels in Japanese and it’s rare to find enough information in English to be able to know if the product is vegan.
There may be a short description line in English on the packaging, but that’s obviously not enough.
I’ve seen few products labelled “Plant-Based” but I learnt from the vegan Facebook groups that even that isn’t enough to determine if the food is vegan…
Some products have a certification from VegeProject Japan indicating that they’re vegan. I saw it on very few products but I hope it expands in the future. There’s a similar certification for vegetarian products.
I used the camera on my Google Translate app to translate ingredient labels. That was a great help. It works in most cases. You can use any other similar translation app.
Cook you own meals
If you’re staying in Tokyo for a while, it’s a good idea to rent a flat or stay in an aparthotel with a kitchen.
I got a local flat with a kitchen for my three week stay in Tokyo.
It was very easy to cook my own meals. On long trips I don’t eat out every single day, so the kitchen was handy.
I normally shopped at the nearest supermarket right around the corner from my flat for vegetables, tofu, soba noodles, udon noodles, edamame, and other beans.
Shopping locally, you can also take the opportunity to try out some local ingredients that are common in Japan, like bean sprouts that are very popular, all kinds of mushrooms I’d never seen before, Japanese sweet potatoes, and Japanese spinach.
These are all local foods available even at smaller supermarkets.
Every supermarket I’ve been to had a large tofu section in the fridge. I used Google Translate to read the packaging and looked for the word silk or cotton (cotton being the local term for firm tofu). It was generally softer than the tofu I was used to, but very easy to cook with.
I hope this guide helps you plan an easy 100% vegan trip to Tokyo. With plenty of vegan restaurants, some shops that cater for vegans, and a great selection of local produce in supermarkets,
Plan your trip to Tokyo
Browse my other Tokyo travel guides: