Halal & Vegan Food in Japan: The Rise of Muslim-Friendly and Vegan Tourism

I originally wrote this article on my linkedin to experiment with how articles work there (actually worked quite well), but I thought I should also keep a version of it on my main blog. Originally published July 6, 2026.

Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a growing amount of discussion, both online and offline, about the apparent increase in “halal vegan” eateries across Japan’s major cities. Having lived in Japan for almost nine years, I can say there has indeed been an increase, especially in the last year or two, but perhaps not in the way many people imagine. Much of what people are noticing today is less the sudden appearance of these establishments and more the fact that they are now marketing themselves prominently in English.

For starters, halal and vegan restaurants are not new to Japan. Halal establishments in particular have existed for a few decades, with their numbers growing alongside the increase in Muslim immigrants and tourists, particularly from Southeast Asia, over the past ten to fifteen years. However, most of these businesses didn’t brand themselves as “Halal Restaurant.” Instead, they operated under their own names or identified themselves by the cuisine they served: Indonesian, Pakistani, Turkish, Indian, and so on. Their halal status was usually implied, or simply indicated by a halal certification sticker on the door or menu. In other words, the halal aspect was always there… it just wasn’t written in large English lettering.

In Japan, these restaurants are often grouped under the umbrella of “ethnic” cuisine (ethnic food). In my experience, ethnic cuisine usually refers to cuisines outside of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, European, and North American food. It often includes South American, Central and West Asian, Middle Eastern, and African cuisines, many of which come from countries with sizeable Muslim or vegetarian populations. These restaurants attract both Japanese and non-Japanese diners regardless of whether they have halal/vege dietary requirements. For many people, it’s simply a chance to eat something different from standard Japanese food.

Similarly, when it comes to vegan or vegetarian establishments, plant-based diets have existed in Japan for centuries due to Buddhist influences. While the majority of the country doesn’t avoid animal products, now and then, you’ll come across someone who follows a vegan diet because their family, or they themselves, belong to a Buddhist sect that practices it. These groups are relatively small, though, and it’s nowhere near as mainstream as some people overseas sometimes imagine. Their food also tends to look quite different from what many Westerners associate or think of as vegan cuisine.

Coming from Australia, and I believe this is also true in the UK, the United States, and much of Europe, I’ve noticed that Japanese restaurants overseas often include vegan versions of classic dishes such as ramen, tonkatsu, omurice, curry rice, and even sushi on their menus. I’ve often wondered whether this “veganisation” of Japanese cuisine, which seemed to accelerate in Sydney after around 2012, contributed to Japanese food becoming less associated with “exotic cuisine” and more with everyday Australian dining (and by extension other Anglo/Euro dining scenes).

I haven’t found research directly testing this idea, but I did come across recent scholarship describing Japanese cuisine’s rise to “gastro-cool” status in Australia in the last two decades through its adaptation to local tastes and consumer demand. Given Australia’s strong growth in plant-based dining over the past two decades too, it makes sense that Japanese restaurants have evolved alongside those expectations and hence tend to have vegan-based options for their dishes (this is purely from my limited observation and experience, I remember being around crowds who were reluctant to try Japanese food because it was associated with raw meat/fish, but once there was an vegetarian/vegan option of certain menu items they were more willing to try dishes – disclaimer is Western Sydney crowd is very different from Inner City – if you know, you know).

Because there are now so many vegan-friendly Japanese cafés and restaurants in Australia, I often meet Australians visiting Japan who are surprised by the lack of similar options. They assume restaurants here will serve the same kinds of vegan dishes they get back home. Then, when they do find a vegan-friendly place, they’re sometimes disappointed because it feels very tourist-oriented, with English signage, English menus, and branding clearly aimed at international visitors… it doesn’t quite feel like the Japan they were expecting. Those who end up at more religious or Buddhist-style restaurants sometimes feel underwhelmed with their dining experience. As one friend once told me while we were visiting a shojin ryori (plant-based Japanese Buddhist cuisine) restaurant in Kyoto as part of a university task, “It’s rather plain, and mostly just tofu. I like tofu, but I was expecting something different.”

There is, however, a middle ground. Japan has plenty of cafés and restaurants that blend Japanese flavours with contemporary health-conscious dining. Rather than explicitly marketing themselves as vegan, they tend to describe themselves as organic, natural, or farm-to-table, offering both meat and plant-based dishes. These are usually the places I like taking friends who come to visit. You won’t always find vegan ramen or vegan tonkatsu (although I’ve been seeing more vegan tonkatsu and soy-based ramen lately), but the atmosphere feels much less touristy, and the prices are closer to what locals would pay.

This brings me back to my original point. While restaurants that have been low-key advertising themselves as vegan or halal-friendly in English have existed in Japan for years, there has recently been a noticeable increase in businesses branding themselves with names such as “Halal Vegan Restaurant,” “Halal Wagyu & Vegan Ramen,” or “Halal Wagyu Vegan Restaurant.”

Anyone familiar with digital marketing will probably recognise what’s happening immediately. This is largely an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and MEO (Map Engine Optimisation) strategy. Rather than relying on a unique restaurant name, these businesses are incorporating the exact keywords that international visitors are most likely to type into Google Search or Google Maps. For someone searching “halal ramen Tokyo” or “vegan sushi Kyoto,” the restaurant becomes significantly easier to discover. Mixing in how people use AI to travel and make decisions, it makes sense why these establishments are naming themselves that. I expect other restaurants targeting tourists will start to do the same (something I also mentioned in my master’s thesis, actually).

To those unfamiliar with digital marketing, this sudden proliferation of English descriptors can make these restaurants feel ubiquitous, or even jarring, simply because the marketing is so visible. Had the same messaging appeared only in Japanese, most locals (sans crazy nationalists) probably wouldn’t think twice about it. But, of course, the target audience wouldn’t find them nearly as easily.

To me, these restaurants, although touristy in nature, fill the gap between what visitors expect Japanese restaurants to accommodate and what has traditionally been available in Japan. Those expectations are often shaped by the Japanese restaurants in their own home countries, especially for travellers coming from Southeast Asia.

For example, in Sydney, halal Japanese food isn’t really in demand (or at least, growing up in the area where there were a lot of halal eateries, I never saw one specifically for Japanese food), but vegan Japanese food certainly is, largely because I believe there has been a growing association of the cuisine with wellness and alternative culture. On the other hand, in Indonesia, there are plenty of halal-friendly Japanese restaurants, probably to the same extent there are vegan-friendly Japanese cafes/restaurants in Australia.

Interestingly enough, Canada, which has a fairly similar ethno-cultural demographic to Sydney, recently had a restaurant launch a halal dish called Shawarma Ramen. I could easily see something like that becoming popular in Sydney too, especially in Western Sydney. (In my experience, food trends from the US and Canada usually reach Western Sydney a few months later.) As dishes like these become more common overseas, I think more tourists will start expecting to find them in Japan too. In that sense, these new halal and vegan-focused restaurants are catering to an expectation that was often created outside Japan in the first place. Kind of like Outback Steakhouse promotes a lot of “Australian dishes” overseas, but you don’t typically find them in Australia unless you go to an establishment that is aware people are interested in those types of dishes…

Now, I know a lot of people will also point to these restaurant openings as evidence of “immigrants taking over Japan” or “immigrants taking advantage of Business Manager visas.” But from what I’ve seen, a lot of these businesses are actually owned or founded by Japanese entrepreneurs. People like Ikuto Hongu of Halal Navi and Otsuka Ken of Ken Company are good examples. Even from a quick search, there are quite a few Japanese companies developing restaurant concepts and franchises specifically aimed at tourists with halal and vegan dietary requirements.

So I don’t think it’s accurate to say these restaurants exist against Japanese interests. If anything, they show Japanese entrepreneurs doing what entrepreneurs do best: identifying a growing market and responding to it. Whether that’s through SEO, MEO, AI engines, or simply recognising that international tourism is changing, they’re reacting to demand despite the growing anti-immigration and “keep Japan Japanese” rhetoric that often dominates online discussions.

While they’re successfully building the supply to meet that demand, I think the next challenge will be making these restaurants feel less like they’re only for tourists. It would be interesting to see more of them become part of Japan’s existing ethnic cuisine or even creative cuisine scene, rather than being viewed as separate “halal” or “vegan” destinations. I think that shift would encourage more locals to see them as just another place to eat, rather than somewhere that exists solely for overseas visitors.

Bonus part I didn’t post on LinkedIn

Last week (in August) I came across a “Halal Building” in Kyoto. As the name suggests, it only houses Halal-friendly restaurants. Apparently it has been around since 2024 and used to have two more restaurants. In Australia, I’ve never seen something like this, and I doubt it’s common anywhere else. Based on their online posts, they’re targeting mostly Indonesian tourists. Naming the building “halal building” will definitely come up in search results, but I feel that if right-wingers get news of this place, they’ll for sure get mad and demand it change its name or close down.