Whether you keep halal, keep kosher, or simply avoid pork, being able to read a Japanese food label is essential. The good news: you only need a small handful of kanji and kana to spot pork and gelatin at a glance. In this guide, you’ll learn the key characters—like 豚 (pork), 豚肉 (pork meat), and 肉 (meat)—see real examples from packages, and discover exactly where to look on labels so you can shop with confidence anywhere in Japan. Pork and Gelatin in Japanese: Pork in Japanese is 豚肉 (buta-niku). Gelatin in Japanese is ゼラチン (zelachin). The first Chinese (kanji) character for pig is 豚 "buta", also read as "ton". The character for meat, 肉 "niku", follows it. Together they make the word "buta-niku", which is pork. They use the same pattern for beef, chicken, duck, and other meats. If you want to know how to name other meats, please leave a comment. Katakana is the Japanese script for foreign words. For example, "bacon," "sausage,...