In Japan, vegan-friendly options are still in minority. However, recently you can see more vegan products in convenience stores, supermarkets, restaurants, etc.

Tokyo, especially, has quite a few vegan options of sweets, snacks, and meals available. At the Tokyo stations, you can even find plenty of souvenirs that are Vegan, gluten-free, and so on.

Unfortunately, the word “vegan” is not that well understood by many Japanese and there are many that confuse vegans with vegetarians.

I’ve also seen products where it would be written vegan, but if you look at the ingredients, you’d see honey or dairy products were used in the process of making it.

Here, I will introduce you a few of my favorite sweets and snacks that are vegan/plant-based and will also tell you where you can get them:

Organic Sweet Potato Sticks(Yuki Saibai no Hoshiimo Stikku/有機栽培の干し芋スティック) from Natural Lawson

The sweet potato sticks from Natural Lawson can be also found in a small corner of a normal Lawson convenience store.

Actually, in Natural Lawson you can find a few vegan snacks and sweets along with many healthy and organic products, that being the reason why I love it so much.

Morinaga Macrobiha(マクロビ派)

The Macrobiha biscuits can be found in many places including supermarkets and drug stores and have quite a few flavors to choose from.

My favorites are the nuts and cacao ones that use oat flakes, rapeseed oil, cocoa powder, nuts, beet sugar, and flour.

I always have them between meals and when I crave for something sweet or need a bit more energy to get me through the day.

They are also a perfect match for the coffee, so I recommend trying it.

Konnyaku Jelly

The Konjac Jelly from Mannan Life is super delicious and light, also low in calories and with numerous flavors to choose from. I recommend the pink grapefruit ones and the grape ones.

It is a good snack for summer and you don’t have to worry about your diet, either as for 25 grams it only has 25 kcal!

SoyJoy Crispy

SoyJoy protein bars can be found everywhere including supermarkets, convenience stores, and drugstores. They are very filling and come in many flavors.

Also, make sure that on the package it is written “crispy” as the regular SOYJOY is not vegan.

The company has affirmed that bone char process was, however, used in whitening the sugar.

Edamame

Sometimes, going for simple snacks is the safest and best way to vegans. Between the simple vegan choices, you have dry fruits, fruits, seeds, nuts, chestnuts, and edamame.

I love eating edamame and is also quite a cheap option. You can buy frozen edamame or fresh edamame for about 200 yen and they have it everywhere in Japan.

Depending on the grammage, you can even find it cheaper for just 100 yen (at the 100-yen Lawson, for example).

Potato Chips

I love buying the potato chips from Natural Lawson, but you can find potato chips that are vegan in all supermarkets in Japan. I like the nori flavors the best, but also like buying the simple ones with salt or salt and pepper only.

You can find ume(pickled plum) flavor or other unique flavors, as well, so in Japan, you’ll have a lot of varieties to choose from when it comes to potato chips.

Beet Chips from Iherb

Iherb has a lot of vegan and gluten-free products, so I love ordering from there.

The Beet Chips are one of the snacks I really enjoy eating and they also have quite a few vegan cookies and veggies chips available.

Rice Brown Cakes from Kaldi

The international shops, such as Kaldi or Jupiter have a variety of snacks that are plant-based, vegan, and gluten-free and one of those is the rice brown cakes with either chia and quinoa or 7 super seeds.

They are super crispy and you can also eat it with some hummus or guacamole on top. It is delicious!

In Kaldi, you can also find vegan chocolate, vegan wine, vegan gummies, gluten-free and vegan bread Crips, nachos, etc.

Here are my best recommendations for vegan and plant-based snacks and sweets in Japan.

If you want to be sure it’s vegan, I recommend going for Iherb or international shops and if you are looking for a vegan restaurant, you can always check out the HappyCow application.