Things about Halal Food in Japan
If you want to bring some Japanese food back home, you might get worried and confused on how to distinguish halal and non-halal. You must carefully choose foods and beverages before you buy. Check the ingredients on the back of the packages. It is usually written in kanji, hiragana or katakana.
These are some examples of confusing ingredients:|
Sweet cooking rice wine |
Mirin is one of the Japanese basic seasonings. |
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Alcohol |
Sake is often used in Japanese dishes. |
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Shortening |
Shortening is a type of fat sold at room temperature, and used for making baked foods. Animal shortening, such as lard, must be avoided. Pure vegetable shortening is halal. |
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Gelatin Lard |
Most of gelatin in Japan is made from pork. It may be used in jellies, candies, breads and ice cream. Some gelatins are made from plant. |
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Emulsifier |
Some are Halal, some are not. |
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Wine |
Alcohol. Can be found in various foods and beverages. |
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Rum |
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Brandy |
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Butter |
The ingredients might contain animal products. |
These ingredients are usually non-halal:
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Pork Pork extract Meat Meat extract |
May be found in various foods. Meat Extract may contain pork or pork oil. |
|
Ham Sausage |
Contains pork. |
|
Chiken Chikenextrect Beaf Beaf extract |
The butchering of chicken and cow in Japan is usually not based on proper Muslim way. |
These are some items that are Insha Allah safe in consumption for Muslims.
❀Arare
This fried rice cracker is called Okaki. There are three flavors: seaweed, red pepper, and wasabi.
Okaki from Hyobando is fried with vegetable oil. The price is \650 a pack. It is certified as a halal product.
You can get this halal Okaki from Hyobando shop in Asakusa, not so far from Asakusa Kaminari-mon gate.
❀Kibidango
Kibidango (sweet proso millet mochi dumplings) is a popular food from the Okayama prefecture. It is a sort of soft mochi.
A box contains three small packs of Kibidango. It features Momotaro, Oni, and Umibozu like below.
There are several flavors such as original, salt and brown sugar.
This Kibidango has been certified as a halal product. It is available in Okayama and online shops.
❀Almond cookie
These cookies have three flavors: almond, cocoa almond, and butter almond.
Insha Allah safe in consumption for Muslims. You can get it at SOGO department stores and other supermarkets.
❀Chocolate
The pictures show there are two kinds of nuts, almond and macadamia.
Insha Allah safe in consumption for Muslims. You can get them in many supermarkets.
❀Japanese green tea
Japanese green tea is in a fine container. One pack has two containers with two different kinds of tea, macha and green tea.
You can get the box of tea in Don Quijote, Asakusa.
❀Japanese snacks with a halal certification mark on it can be found at:
- Toko Indonesia (near Shin-Okubo station Tokyo)
- Halal corner (near Asakusa)
- Halal corner (Di LAOX-Akihabara, Shinjuku)
- Gyomu super
- Kaldi
- Mitsukoshi
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