# Why does Japanese Cuisine (seem to) use no tomatoes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [October 1, 2020, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967 "2020-10-01T11:46:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/41 "2021-01-01T15:44:01Z")
FWIW: > **[Search: tomatoes | SoraNews24 -Japan News-](https://soranews24.com/?s=tomatoes#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=tomato&gsc.sort=&gsc.page=1)** > > Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/42 "2021-01-01T15:53:15Z")
> [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > AFAIK, tomatoes are not indigenous to Asia, and all the major Asian cuisines omit them. The Indians do use tomatoes in curries nowadays, and tomatoes are available in all Asian countries. Just a speculation but perhaps the difference is that India had a prolonged period when it was under European rule while China and Japan did not. Perhaps Europeans brought tomatoes into India as part of their cuisine and it was then adopted into the local cuisine. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/43 "2021-01-01T15:56:17Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > So it appears that Japanese do eat products made from tomatoes, but you’re unlikely to see whole or sliced tomatoes in any dish in Japan. Is what I say correct? I don’t know about the Japan part, however, you remind me of something about tomatoes here in the US. An enormous number of tomatoes in this country are sold on sandwiches and salads from restaurants, and the tomatoes are generally low in quality and quantity and not much more, or even as much as a garnish. Some people certainly love fresh tomatoes so much they wouldn’t want a salad or sandwich without some, but I doubt that’s a majority. And off hand, I can’t think of all that many dishes besides salads and sandwiches that use fresh tomatoes. So without our traditional usage on salads and sandwiches our cuisine may not be all that different than Japan in fresh tomato usage. We certainly consume vast quantities of tomatoes in other forms, ketchup, pizza, pasta sauce, soup, etc. And many of the fresh tomatoes purchased at the grocery store are cooked into other dishes as well. The abundance of fresh tomatoes available here are a result of that kind of popularity. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/44 "2021-01-01T16:15:52Z")
Plenty of other foods from the Americas were enthusiastically and rapidly adopted by Asian cultures. Maize and sweet potatoes were being actively cultivated in China by the early 1500s. Chili peppers were enthusiastically adopted across the region. I can’t find a date on when peanuts were introduced, but they also quickly became integrated into lots of Asian cuisines. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/45 "2021-01-01T18:02:28Z")
> [@audiobottle](#): > > n Korean cooking at least tomatoes are treated as more a fruit than a vegetable. Growing up I ate tomatoes sliced up with a sprinkling of sugar on it as a dessert/snack item. That may have changed in recent years, as now there appears to be cheese incorporated into everything and that was definitely not the case when I was younger. Oddly enough, my American father ate tomatoes with sugar (and vinegar). And mother ate tomato soup with rice in it: I always assumed that was something she brought from Korea. There was tomato in her meatloaf (from an American recipe), but apart from that I can’t say that tomatoes featured largely in her cuisine until she started cooking pasta. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/46 "2021-01-01T18:06:49Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > In the case of cheese, part of that may also be that lactose intolerance is prevalent among people of East Asian descent; [this source indicates](https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/lactose-intolerance#statistics) that between 70% and 100% of them suffer from lactose intolerance. Which is a reason for washing out the lactose, part of the process of making cheese. (Fermenting is also a process of removing lactose, but I understand that cheese making still leaves lactose in the whey). ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/47 "2021-01-01T20:38:51Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Some people certainly love fresh tomatoes so much they wouldn’t want a salad or sandwich without some, but I doubt that’s a majority. I grew up in tomato growing country and I buy tomatoes to eat like apples. It’s not a proper salad if there aren’t tomatoes in it. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/48 "2021-01-01T21:02:28Z")
Although people think of Japanese cooking as sushi, sashimi, miso and teriyaki - it’s a little more complex. I was surprised Tokyo had (by my count) about thirty different _types_ of restaurant. One type serves mainly organ meats, one serves various yakitori, one copies a Western steakhouse, etc. The steakhouses might serve salads with tomatoes and have table side ketchup. I am unsure to what extent fears of being poisoned by tomatoes is a myth. Probably mostly. Still, Japan was closed for hundreds of years and probably minimized foreign foods. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@bmoak1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak1)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/49 "2021-01-03T02:19:51Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Jalapeños and avocados have been enthusiastically incorporated into Sushi, so I don’t think you can say it’s tradition keeping tomatoes out. They haven’t been incorporated into sushi in Japan. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@bmoak1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak1)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/50 "2021-01-04T01:12:57Z")
> [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > Japan and China have sweet potatoes (_imo_ in Japanese) but potatoes are not indigenous and not popular except as fries. ??? Sweet potatoes are a common food in Japan and were introduced via trade with Okinawa, where they had been introduced in the mid-1600s. Sweet potato cultivation thrived on the southern island of Kyushu, where they became a staple food that helped stave off famines when the rice crop failed. Roast or baked sweet potatoes are sold from food carts all over Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/51 "2021-01-04T03:29:57Z")
Yes, but what about potatoes, the non-sweet kind? ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/52 "2021-01-04T03:40:33Z")
> [@bmoak1](#): > > Roast or baked sweet potatoes are sold from food carts all over Japan. Out in front of the local neighborhood grocery store where I stayed in Tokyo. If it had been more common, I would have eaten that _all the time_, but I didn’t see it in the CBD, and from the local shop they were sold out if I wasn’t there at the right time of day. ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/53 "2021-01-04T09:17:43Z")
Sweet potatoes have a long history in both China and Japan, so what you say is correct, but the second part of my post referred to the potatoes that we know. They are widely available in Japan today, but they are a comparatively recent introduction. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/54 "2021-01-04T10:45:25Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I mean, you can get hot sauces and the odd transplanted spicy dish(vindaloo in the UK, for example), but on the whole, most actual European cuisine isn’t big on chiles, unless you’re in Hungary, Italy or Spain. I can’t think of any Hungarian dishes that contain chiles. Are you thinking of paprika? That’s technically the same species, but quite a different variety (similar to how broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower are all the same species of plant). Most Hungarian paprika is sweet, not hot, and even the hot version tends to be used very sparingly. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/55 "2021-01-04T13:40:18Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Perusing my cookbooks I noticed that the Japanese ones do not use tomato as an ingredient. Can people who know more than me about Japan confirm this impression? And if it is right: does anybody know why? And is this limited to Japanese Cuisine, or do other cuisines (Asian or not) also not use tomatoes? Traditional Japanese cuisine (**[washoku](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cuisine)**) doesn’t feature tomatoes because these development of these traditional foods predates the introduction of tomatoes. Adaptations of western foods (**[yoshoku](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%8Dshoku)**) are popular in Japan, and plenty of them feature tomatoes. Tomatoes are available in grocery stores in Japan, and if you browse the basement deli in any decent department store there, you’ll find plenty of dishes that incorporate tomatoes. At some point the distinction between “Japanese cuisine” and “not Japanese cuisine” becomes a bit blurry. Example, the average person would consider ramen to be traditional Japanese cuisine, but it was most likely introduced from China about a hundred years ago. In the case of your cookbooks, I suppose marketing considerations matter. **[You can get decent hamburgers (topped with tomato, no less) in Japan](https://www.mos.co.jp/global/)**, and you can get also get pretty good spaghetti with tomato-based sauce - but a person in America buying a cookbook with recipes for Japanese food will probably be disappointed if it includes these kinds of recipes. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/56 "2021-01-04T14:46:22Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > **[You can get decent hamburgers (topped with tomato, no less) in Japan](https://www.mos.co.jp/global/)** , and you can get also get pretty good spaghetti with tomato-based sauce And apparently sometimes they are served together. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/57 "2021-01-04T15:20:52Z")
I think you’re drawing a non-existent distinction. After all, jalapenos, serranos, anchos, guajillos, pequin and many other varieties are all used in Mexico, in fresh, dried and powdered forms. Why is Hungary somehow different because they have a primary variety that they use in powdered form? Hungarian paprika comes in hot, medium and mild (IIRC the terms are “sharp/half-sharp/sweet”) and is used liberally in Hungarian cuisine. And gulyas is reminiscent of American chili- kind of a European version more or less. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/58 "2021-01-04T15:25:07Z")
Still, I kind of wonder why other countries’ cuisines enthusiastically adopted New World ingredients like the chile, potato and tomato, and others like Japan did not. I kind of get the impression that Japan isn’t averse to foreign foods, but that there’s very little mixing that goes on, unlike say… Italy, Spain or even the UK. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/59 "2021-01-04T15:39:03Z")
The sense I have always had about Japanese culture (and Japanese cuisine) is that traditions are extremely important. So, while many Japanese may like Western cuisines and ingredients (I know that, for example, French cuisine is very popular in Japan), adapting traditional Japanese dishes with Western ingredients is a different concept entirely – and, apparently, something that is just not widely done. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967/60 "2021-01-04T15:39:27Z")
Until the 1850s Japan was a hermit kingdom with little outside trade. Europe had a 350 year head start on adapting New World ingredients into their cuisines. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-japanese-cuisine-seem-to-use-no-tomatoes/921967.md?page=4)