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60 free Japanese Food trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Japanese cuisine, washoku, has been on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage list since 2013, and there is far more to it than sushi. This quiz covers the staples and the science: rice and the 'one soup, three sides' meal, dashi and the discovery of umami, miso and soy sauce and the mould that makes both, sake brewing, matcha and the tea ceremony, sashimi, tempura's Portuguese roots and the four wagyu breeds. It also covers everything people actually queue for: ramen and tonkotsu, udon and soba, okonomiyaki and takoyaki, yakitori, tonkatsu and katsu curry, gyoza, sukiyaki and shabu-shabu, onigiri and bento, natto, mochi and wagashi, taiyaki, dorayaki, anpan and melonpan, plus fugu licences, conveyor-belt sushi, Tsukiji and Toyosu, Momofuku Ando's instant noodles, Cup Noodles, Pocky, Ramune, Japanese whisky and the Kit Kats students take into exams. Questions run from easy (what tempura is) to expert (the Scottish pharmacist who invented Ramune). Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Japanese cuisine and its dishes, drinks, ingredients and brands, and each question shows the sentence that supports it. Try our sushi, Japan and world food quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Traditional Japanese cuisine, based on rice, miso soup and seasonal side dishes, is known by what name?
Washoku
It was added to UNESCO's Intangible Heritage list in 2013.
Q 02The phrase ichijū-sansai, describing a typical Japanese meal, means what?
One soup, three sides
The set is served with steamed rice and pickles, and also describes the first course of a kaiseki dinner.
Q 03What is the one defining ingredient of sushi?
Vinegared rice
Raw seafood is the most common topping, but plenty of sushi contains cooked seafood, vegetables or omelette and none at all.
Q 04Nigiri sushi, seafood on hand-pressed rice, is credited to Hanaya Yohei around which year?
1824
It was the fast food of Edo's townspeople; the city is now Tokyo.
Q 05Yoshiaki Shiraishi got the idea for kaiten-zushi, sushi that circulates past diners, from watching what?
Beer bottles on a brewery conveyor
He opened the first Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Higashiosaka in 1958 and expanded to 250 restaurants.
Q 06What does the word sashimi literally mean?
Pierced body
The name may come from spiking a fish's brain the moment it is landed to keep the flesh fresh.
Q 07Ramen's alkaline wheat noodles trace back to which community in Japan?
Yokohama Chinatown
Nearly every region now has its own style, from Kyushu's tonkotsu to Hokkaido's miso ramen.
Q 08Tonkotsu ramen, invented by a street vendor in Kurume in 1937, has a broth based on what?
Pork bones
Many shops offer a second helping of noodles for the leftover broth, a system called kaedama.
Q 09Tempura arrived in Japan in the 16th century thanks to which visitors?
Portuguese Jesuits
The name may come from the Latin tempora, the fasting 'Ember days' when Catholics ate battered vegetables instead of meat.
Q 10Miso, and soy sauce, are made by fermenting soybeans with which fungus?
Aspergillus oryzae
The mould is called kōji in Japanese and is also essential to brewing sake.
Q 11Dashi, the stock at the base of miso soup, is most commonly made from kombu kelp and shavings of what?
Katsuobushi
Kombu's glutamates and katsuobushi's inosinate combine into a synergy of umami.
Q 12The smoked, fermented, rock-hard fish shaved into bonito flakes is made from which species?
Skipjack tuna
The fillets are simmered, smoked and fermented until rock hard, then shaved into flakes.
Q 13Which Tokyo chemist identified umami as a distinct taste in 1908 while studying kombu broth?
Kikunae Ikeda
He linked the savoury taste to glutamic acid and later commercialised MSG.
Q 21Shōchū, Japan's distilled spirit, is typically what strength?
25% alcohol
It is made from rice, barley, sweet potatoes, buckwheat or brown sugar, and occasionally chestnuts or even carrots.
Q 22Most 'wasabi' served outside Japan is actually a mix of horseradish, mustard, starch and what?
Green food colouring
Real wasabi is a difficult, water-hungry crop, so growers cannot meet demand and it stays expensive.
Q 23Soy sauce originated in which country about 2,200 years ago?
China
Kikkoman, formed in Noda in 1917 from eight family firms dating back to 1603, is now the world's largest producer.
Q 14Which slimy, smelly breakfast food is made from soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis?
Natto
Legend credits its discovery to the samurai Minamoto no Yoshiie, whose boiled beans fermented in straw bags.
Q 15Wagyu is the collective name for how many principal Japanese cattle breeds?
Four
The famous marbling is really a trait of just one of them, the Japanese Black, which makes up about 97 percent of wagyu.
Q 16Genuine Kobe beef must come from the Tajima strain of Japanese Black cattle raised in which prefecture?
Hyōgo
The animals must also be heifers or steers and be processed at one of five approved slaughterhouses.
Q 17Matcha gets its bright green colour and strong umami from what?
Shade-growing the tea plants
The powdered-tea method was brought from China by the monk Eisai around 1191.
Q 18Which monk is credited with introducing powdered tea to Japan around 1191?
Eisai
The tea ceremony, chanoyu, still centres on preparing and drinking matcha.
Q 19Despite being called rice wine, sake is made by a process more like brewing what?
Beer
Starch is converted to sugar and then fermented; undiluted sake reaches 18 to 20 percent alcohol.
Q 20Before brewing, sake rice is polished to remove what?
The bran
The more of the grain milled away, the more refined the grade, up to daiginjo.
Q 24Kikkoman was created in 1917 in which town, through the merger of eight family firms?
Noda
By 2002 it was the world's largest producer of soy sauce.
Q 25Mochi is made by pounding what?
Glutinous rice
The pounding ceremony is called mochitsuki, and mochi is the traditional food of New Year.
Q 26Onigiri are traditionally filled with salted salmon or what pickled fruit?
Umeboshi
Ume is usually translated as plum but is closer to an apricot; the pickles are extremely sour and salty.
Q 27Soba noodles are made from which flour?
Buckwheat
Long soba eaten on New Year's Eve, toshikoshi soba, symbolises long life.
Q 28Toshikoshi soba is eaten on which day?
New Year's Eve
The tradition dates from the Edo period; buckwheat's hardiness makes it a symbol of resilience.
Q 29Okonomiyaki, the savoury griddle pancake, has two main regional styles from Kansai and which city?
Hiroshima
Toppings include a Worcestershire-based sauce, mayonnaise, aonori and bonito flakes; the name means roughly 'grilled as you like'.
Q 30Takoyaki, the ball-shaped Osaka snack cooked in a moulded pan, is filled with what?
Octopus
The batter also holds tempura scraps, pickled ginger and spring onion.