Japanese Candy and Snacks
Japanese Candy and Snacks…Visit any Japanese convenience store or grocery store and get ready to be amazed by Japan’s overwhelming selection of candy and snacks, including Pocky, Hello Kitty snacks, Japanese rice snacks, and much more. Read all about them in our guide to Japanese snacks and candy!
Overview of Japanese Candy and Snacks
Japan has an insane variety of candy and snacks, making the country a dream for any child or adult with a sweet tooth. In Japan you’ll find everything from chocolate, gummy candy, hard candy, rice snacks, and chips, to dried seafood snacks and wasabi snacks and of course, everyone’s favorite Pocky!
Varieties of Japanese Candy and Snacks
Japanese Pocky
Pocky is everyone’s favorite Japanese candy! Pocky is Japanese stick candy that consists of a thin, crisp bread stick dipped with sweet frosting or seasoned with tasty flavors.
There are dozens of varieties of Pocky, with new varieties being concocted by maker Glico all of the time. Favorites include sweet flavors like strawberry pocky, chocolate pocky, and almond pocky, as well as salty snack flavors like Pretz and Tomato Pretz Pocky, Salad Pretz.
Japanese Chocolate Snacks
Japanese chocolate snacks come in all shapes and sizes. Kids love fun items like Pucca Chocolate fish-shaped snacks, Giant Hello Panda, Chocolate Filled Koala Biscuits, Calipico ice cream cone candy, Takenoko no Sato, and much more. Japanese Kit Kat is also popular, as is Meiji Black Chocolate and other adult-targeted chocolate treats.
Japanese Chewy Candy
You can find a huge selection of chewy candy in Japan, including popular flavors like Morinaga Hi-Chew strawberry, apple, grape and other fruit flavors, Pucco Stick Soda, Cola, and other fun flavors.
Japanese Hard Candy
You can find a massive selection of unique Japanese hard candy flavors like Meito Umeboshi Plum Candy, Hokkaido Milk Candy, Ginger Hard Candy, Musk Melon Candy, and Throat Refreshing (Nodo Sukkiri) tasty cough drops.
Japanese Gum
Japanese gum varieties include Lotte Black Black, Glico Fortune Telling Gum, and Coolmint Chewing Gum.
Japanese Gummy Candy
Gummy candies are extremely popular in Japan. Popular brands and flavors include Kasugai Lychee, Apple, Peach, and Kiwi Gummy, and Meiji Strawberry Chocolate Gummy, Mix Fruit Chocolate Gummy, Shigekix Super Cola Gummy, and other fun flavors.
Japanese Rice Snacks
Rice is the staple food of Japan, so it’s not surprising that you can find dozens of varieties of rice crackers and other Japanese rice snacks.
Japanese Potato Chips
Japanese potato chips come in flavors unheard of in the West, like onion gratin, pizza, takoyaki, yakisoba, shrimp (ebi) mayonnaise, curry, okonomiyaki, and that’s just for starters!
Japanese Dried Fish Snacks
Every grocery store has a section devoted to dried fish snacks like dried shredded squid and niboshi dried baby sardines. An acquired taste to be sure, but actually quite tasty!
Japanese Wasabi Snacks
In Japan you can find delicious wasabi peas and other delicious wasabi snacks.
Hello Kitty Snacks
Are you a Hello Kitty Fan? You’ll have no trouble finding a wide selection of cute Hello Kitty snacks like chocolate dip biscuits, Hello Kitty Milk Candy, strawberry hard candy, and many more!
Japanese Calorie Mate
Calorie Mate is a kind of meal replacement snack popular with students and adults on the go. The snack is a kind of shortbread cookie, and comes in flavors like cheese chocolate, and more.
Hopefully this brief overview will give you a sense of the types of Japanese candy and Japanese snacks available in Japan. In order to see and try them all, you’ll just have to go to Japan yourself!
