Japan’s Top Three Spices: Pepper, Ginger, and Wasabi

Spices are perfect for enhancing the flavor and color of dishes, as well as enriching the taste. Supermarkets and shops handling imported food items offer a wide range of spices from all over the world.

When the research company Cross Marketing ran a survey asking 1,100 people in Japan aged from 20 to 69 what their favorite spice was, the top answer was “pepper” at 40.4%.

The second most popular spice was “ginger” (36.6%), used in the popular ginger pork dish buta no shōgayaki. This was followed by “wasabi” (34.8%) and “shichimi spice blend/ichimi tōgarashi chili pepper” (27.9%), indicating that Japanese spices were firm favorites. Sanshō (Japanese pepper), an essential spice for kabayaki eel, was only named by 6.2% though.

A tendency could be seen overall for older people to enjoy spices and stimulating flavors.

Asked about their use of spices, at 39.1%, the most common answer was to use it “when wanting to add flavor to food”, while the second most popular was that they “have always liked spices” with 27.4%. The third main use was “as seasoning in food” at 20.8%. The percentage of women who answered “when wanting to add flavor” was more than 10 points higher than men; while, when it came to respondents who said they “seldom use” spices, the percentage of men was around 10 points higher.

Respondents also gave their favorite ways to use spices, including “eating gyōza dumplings with vinegar and pepper” (man in his twenties), “sometimes putting pepper in miso soup” (man in his forties), and “adding ginger to sweet milk tea to raise my body temperature” (woman in her fifties).

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)