VOL.214 APRIL 2026
THE APPEAL OF YOSHOKU: JAPANESE-STYLE WESTERN CUISINE (PART 2) What Is Yoshoku? Acceptance and Transformation Seen Through Regional Varieties

Yoshoku, or Japanese-style Western cuisine, is an essential part of Japan’s culinary culture. Since the country opened to the West, the Japanese have adopted Western food, experimented through trial and error, and created a wide array of eclectic cuisine. This history—shaped by Japanese adaptability, creativity, and passion for food—is explored with HIGASHIYOTSUYANAGI Shoko, Professor of BAIKA Women’s University and a specialist in comparative food cultures.

What factors contributed to the development of yoshoku in Japan?

My research focuses on cookbooks published from the Meiji period through the early Showa period (1870s–1930s). A close reading of these texts shows that in the Meiji period, the terms “Western cuisine” and “yoshoku” were used almost interchangeably. Cookbooks from the period reveal little difference between those titled with “Western cuisine” and those labeled “yoshoku”. In other words, yoshoku was originally used as a term encompassing Western-origin dishes in general.

Later, cookbooks introduced the concept of “eclectic cuisine” (setchu ryori), which did not aim simply to replicate Western dishes but sought to adapt them using ingredients and seasonings available in Japan, tailored to Japanese tastes and lifestyles.

For example, some recipes recommended using nihon-negi (Japanese long onions, now commonly known as naganegi) in place of onions or substituting vegetable oil for butter. Such adaptations were not merely stopgap measures, but practical solutions aimed at making Western-style dishes that could realistically be prepared in Japanese households. Through this process, the term yoshoku gradually came to be established not simply as a translated label, but as a distinct culinary concept unique to Japan.

Was Western culinary culture incorporated into Japanese households through yoshoku as a form of eclectic cuisine? 

In Meiji-period Japan, there was a strong determination to bring Western cuisine into home. Yoshoku did not spread naturally on its own; rather, it was introduced through cookbooks as a new food culture that needed to be learned.

This development was also strongly influenced by advances in hygiene and nutritional science, as well as by policy-related factors. Prefaces to Western cookbooks published during the Meiji period repeatedly assert that meat and dairy products should be consumed in order to build strong bodies. At the time, however, meat consumption and drinking milk were far from familiar practices for most Japanese people.

In the essay A Daughter of the Samurai by writer SUGIMOTO Etsuko,¹ who spent her girlhood in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, she recounts how people of the time genuinely believed that drinking milk would cause horns to grow. There was also a strong aversion to meat, and accounts note that SUGIMOTO’s grandmother steadfastly refused to eat it. For this reason, cookbooks needed to carefully explain how yoshoku dishes that used meat and dairy products were both safe and suitable for home cooking. Yoshoku was introduced cautiously, serving in many respects as a symbol of “civilization” itself.

The fact that yoshoku evolved to pair well with white rice may likewise reflect an effort to make it more approachable. Symbolizing this trend, many modern cookbooks proposed combining yoshoku with everyday meals centered on rice and soup.

So it was precisely because of these adaptations that yoshoku came to be accepted at the Japanese table. When then, did yoshoku become a part of everyday meals as it is today?

The situation changed dramatically after World War II. One major factor was the influence of school lunch (See “The Significance and Evolution of Japan’s School Lunch Program,” in HIGHLIGHTING Japan December 2025 issue). The menu incorporating items such as bread, stew, and powdered skim milk played a significant role in shaping the tastes of the postwar generation. This was closely linked to relief supplies provided by the Licensed Agencies for Relief in Asia (LARA) Committee, led by ASANO Shichinosuke,² as well as food aid from the United States, which were used in school lunch programs.  Through this process, Western-style dishes gradually shifted from being perceived as “special occasion foods” to becoming an ordirary home cooking.

From the 1970s onward, yoshoku took root in everyday life as household appliances such as refrigerators and gas stoves, became widespread, and processed seasonings, including curry roux, stew bases, ketchup, and mayonnaise, found their way into home kitchens. Experiences with yoshoku at department store restaurants, along with the spread of family restaurants, also helped expand dining-out culture and contributed to the widespread popularization of yoshoku. 
(See “The Evolution of the Japanese Classic, Curry Rice,” in HIGHLIGHTING Japan August 2025 issue, “Western-Style Sauce Tomato Ketchup, Now a Staple on Japanese Dining Tables,” in HIGHLIGHTING Japan August 2025 issue, “Family restaurants: Supporting the spread of Yoshoku in Japan,” in HIGHLIGHTING Japan August 2025 issue)

Today, there are many regionally distinctive forms of yoshoku across Japan. Could you highlight some representative examples, and explain what sparked their development and the role they have played in local communities?

Menus that combine rice with Western-style dishes have existed since the Meiji and Taisho periods. However, from the 1950s through the 1960s, regionally distinctive forms of yoshoku began to attract particular attention. Representative examples include escalope from Hokkaido, hanton rice from Ishikawa Prefecture, and toruko rice (meaning “Turkish rice”) from Nagasaki Prefecture (See “Nagasaki — Where Yoshoku Culture Got Started,” in HIGHLIGHTING Japan April 2026 issue). While these dishes share a basic structure—fried items placed atop rice and finished with sauce—they differ widely in terms of ingredients and the periods in which they emerged.

Hokkaido’s escalope was devised to allow fishermen to be served a meal quickly. While recipes for a dish called escalope appear in Meiji- and Taisho-period cookbooks, including Hiden Kokai Katei Ryori no Koshiraekata (“Revealing Secret Methods: How to Prepare Home-Style Cooking,” 1917), where it is introduced as a beef cutlet topped with demi-glace sauce, the addition of rice reflects a distinctly Hokkaido-style adaptation.

Ishikawa Prefecture’s hanton rice consists of fried fish or other items served atop ketchup-flavored rice and finished with tartar sauce. While it may appear Western at first glance, each of its components is deeply familiar to Japanese diners. In particular, the combination of rice and ketchup, fried items, and tartar sauce is carefully balanced so that the flavors complement one another.

Hanton rice developed within local yoshoku restaurants and diners, occupying a space between home cooking and dining out. It is neither a refined specialty dish nor purely home-style dishes. Rather, it is the neighborhood yoshoku restaurant—this in-between space—that can be seen as a vital foundation supporting Japan’s yoshoku culture.

A similar example can be found in Nagasaki Prefecture’s toruko (“Turkish”) rice, which brings together Western-style dishes such as pilaf or butter rice, spaghetti, and cutlets on a single plate. Rather than following a fixed recipe, its composition varies from restaurant to restaurant. Some establishments use dry curry,⁴ while others serve it with Spaghetti Napolitan. (See “Yokohama-born Spaghetti Napolitan,” in HIGHLIGHTING Japan August 2025 issue)

It is precisely this lack of rigid definition that characterizes Japan’s yoshoku. A Meiji-period cookbook, Shokudoraku: Autumn Volume (1903), introduces a pilaf-style beef rice dish under the name torukomeshi (“Turkish rice”). The name toruko rice was coined within Japan’s yoshoku tradition, drawing inspiration from Turkish rice dishes. It offers a clear illustration of how yoshoku, while evoking an image of foreign cuisine, is in practice deeply rooted in Japanese dietary culture.

What these local yoshoku share is a focus not on clearly separating Japanese and Western cuisines, but on prioritizing two key elements: affinity with rice and a feeling of fullness. As these dishes came to reflect sensibilities shaped through everyday life, local yoshoku gradually evolved into local cuisine in its own right.

Local food culture is not defined solely by traditional Japanese cuisine. Western-style dishes that emerged in the modern era and took root in specific regions are also essential elements in telling the story of each area’s culinary heritage.

Yoshoku is not a single, fully formed culinary genre. Rather, it represents a long continuum of change—from the initial acceptance of Western cuisine in the Meiji period, through adaptations for home cooking, postwar popularization, and the emergence of distinctive regional expressions across Japan. Local yoshoku can be seen as one culmination of this process, a testament to how the Japanese have come to embrace Western-style cuisine as their own.

When traveling in Japan, visitors are encouraged to savor these dishes together with the unique local stories they embody. 

• 1. Born in 1873 and died in 1950. A writer active from the Taisho period through the Showa period.
• 2. Born in 1894 and died in 1993. A newspaper journalist and media executive during the Showa period. After World War II, he was also involved in international relief efforts.
• 3. Young shoots of bamboo harvested in early spring. Widely used in Japanese cuisine.
• 4. A type of yoshoku that developed uniquely in Japan. A curry-flavored dish with little liquid, typically served with rice or noodles.

By MOROHASHI Kumiko 
Photo: ©2026 Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd.; PIXTA