How to check Japanese products for pork.

How to Eat Halal in Japan: A Guide to Japanese Food Labeling

And how to identify pork and gelatin in Japanese food products, essential for halal travelers.

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," "ham," "pepperoni," and "salami" are katakana words. You have already seen what it looks like with the word "gelatin." Below is a list of the most common pork-related ingredients. Bear in mind that this is not an exhaustive list. Below, we list the most typical conjugation forms, although other forms exist.

Pig - 豚(buta)
Meat - 肉(niku)
Pork - 豚肉 (buta-niku)
Pork 2 - ポーク (poku)
Pork 3 - トン、とん (ton)
Bacon - ベーコン (beikon)
Ham - ハム (hamu)
Sausage - ソーセージ(soseji)
Salami - サラミ (sarami)
Pepperoni - ペパロニ (peparoni)
Gelatin - ゼラチン(zelachin)

Where the ingredients and allergens are:

A bottle of dressing lists eggs, dairy, and soybeans as allergens in the product. 

In Japanese labeling, manufacturers label allergens in a separate section. In fact, this section lists pork and gelatin as well. You could also see listings for eggs, dairy, beans, wheat, and other allergens. Knowing the location of this label is very useful.

The allergens are listed separately for better accessibility. The most common label is a bold box with the ingredients listed in kanji. Some companies use a blue box. Yet, not all the companies list the allergens this way. Some have them listed at the end of the ingredients list in parentheses. All food items have these allergen listings, including "bentos" or boxed lunches. For bento boxes and fresh food at grocery or convenience stores, the allergen info is on a separate sticker on the bottom of the food tray pack.

Front of a bento.

Back/Bottom of a bento

A Brief Note on Gelatin:

The allergen section of a pack of gum. Here gelatin is listed.

Gelatin in Japan is not always from a pig. Some companies use a bovine-based gelatin. But, there is not always a distinction in the labeling. This article's research found only one properly labeled snack. It used a specific type of gelatin. It had the kanji character for pig "豚" and then gelatin "ゼラチン." You can see it pictured below. Also, grocery store staff may not know about the gelatin in a product. It's not a common question. The only surefire way to know what type of gelatin the manufacturer uses is by calling them.

Pork gelatin labeling.

What to expect with cross contamination: 

Pork is the go-to meat for the majority of meat-based Japanese food because it is a cheap meat in comparison to beef. In Japanese chain restaurants, the minced meat is a beef and pork mix unless stated otherwise. For example, a famous burger chain in Japan called Moss Burger uses pork in its meat patties. And if you buy ground meat at the grocery store, watch out, because it is likely a combination of beef and pork. Most famous chains will say if their non-pork products may contain pork.

                                             
                                                               Beef and pork symbols together

In contrast, fish and meat are not mixed. In fact, the fish and meat departments at grocery stores are completely separate. This also holds true in restaurants to some extent. When it comes to raw fish, such as sashimi, there is no cross-contamination. But if the fish is fried, there may be cross-contamination from the utensils or from the frying oil.

This leads us to the final question: do most places use the same utensils between meats? The answer is unclear. Each place has different practices. However, major chains and grocery stores' lunch sections likely share utensils. Grocery store customers use communal tongs to pick up food from the fresh food tables. They use them to get anything from fried chicken to pork items. In cases such as these, it’s always best to ask.

Two General Rules of Thumb

Steam case in convenience stores

1. If the food is labeled as "meat" (肉) with no distinction then it likely contains pork.

That goes for a lot of other types of things. In Japan, a famous food is the pork-bun, or "nikuman", written as "肉まん". It is a steamed bun filled with minced/ground pork meat. You can usually find these in convenience stores all over Japan throughout the year. Within the same steam case are products like the pizza bun or the chocolate bun. These have no pork in them, but they share the same steam case. This can be a problem for some people; hence, it is something to watch-out for. 

2. If there is a fried pork food item, then it likely shares the same oil as everything else.

Another issue when eating in Japan is that, with deep-fried food, it is usually fried in the same oil as everything else. This issue is most evident in grocery stores that make ready-made foods. These include karaage (Japanese fried chicken), chicken cutlets, nuggets, fried shrimp, and tempura.

A Brief Note on Tempura

Traditional Japanese tempura consists of battered seafood and vegetables. Meat is usually absent. Also, Japanese cuisine prides itself on the subtlety of taste (優し味, “yasashi-aji”). A traditional tempura chef would not share oils with non-tempura foods. It might upset the flavors. If a restaurant's specialty is tempura, there is usually no meat other than seafood.

Of course, please do your own research. This article is not comprehensive. If you have any questions or need further explanation, please leave a comment! Thanks for reading.