After Sushi, Which Japanese Foods Are Growing Abroad? Matcha, Wagyu, Katsu Curry and Miso by the Numbers

Short answer (as of 2026-10-26): Matcha, clearly. Japan's exports of green tea, most of it powdered tea including matcha, almost doubled in 2025 to ¥72.1 billion, from ¥36.4 billion in 2024. Beef (¥73.1 billion) and seasonings such as miso and soy sauce also set records. Meanwhile the number of Japanese restaurants abroad fell for the first time on record, to about 181,000. The "second wave" is not one dish so much as a shift in where Japanese food shows up: less on restaurant signs, more in cafés and home kitchens.

This is a full rewrite of an article we published in April 2026. Several figures in that version, including "190,000+ Japanese restaurants abroad", "A5 wagyu exports of 300 tonnes", "500 million Starbucks matcha lattes a year" and "over 50 CoCo Ichibanya stores in Europe", could not be traced to official statistics or company data, or were contradicted by them. We have replaced them with figures we could verify, or removed them.

Is the number of Japanese restaurants abroad still growing?

No. Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) counted about 181,000 in 2025, down roughly 6,000 from about 187,000 in 2023, the first fall since its survey began.

MAFF counts, every two years and with help from Japan's embassies, the places treated locally as Japanese restaurants:

Only Asia fell, by about 10% to roughly 112,000, which MAFF puts down mainly to China's economic slowdown. North America (about 29,400) and Europe (about 19,200) were flat. Latin America grew by about 20% to around 15,300, which MAFF links to the popularity of Japanese anime; the Middle East and Africa also grew by about a fifth. For more on that connection, see How anime conquered the world. A Japanese food-industry paper read the dip as a market moving from quantity to quality rather than a loss of interest.

Which Japanese foods are exports growing for?

Japan's food and farm exports reached a record ¥1.7005 trillion in 2025, up 12.8% and the 13th record in a row. Green tea, beef and seasonings led.

Source: MAFF, based on Ministry of Finance trade statistics. Our previous version described a Japanese craft beer boom "especially in California". In fact about 41% of Japan's beer exports go to South Korea and only 4.5% to the US, and we could find no official figure for craft beer alone, so that section has gone.

Why is there a matcha shortage?

Production of tencha, the leaf that is ground into matcha, has roughly tripled in a decade, but demand abroad has grown faster. About 80% of Japan's green tea exports by value are now powdered tea, and January-August 2026 exports (¥67.4 billion) were running ahead of 2025.

According to MAFF's October 2026 tea report, matcha starts in shaded tea gardens: two to three weeks before picking, the bushes are covered to block sunlight. The leaves are steamed and dried without rolling to make tencha, which is then stone-ground. Tencha output in 2025 was about 3.2 times its 2014 level. Kagoshima is now the largest producer, followed by Kyoto and Shizuoka, and raw tencha sells for about 4.9 times the price of ordinary sencha.

The US bought ¥29.3 billion of Japanese green tea in 2025 (up 83%) and the UK ¥4.7 billion, five times the year before. In 2025 international media reported tea shops in Uji, near Kyoto, limiting purchases per customer and heat cutting yields.

In Japan, tea was first a ritual of hospitality: the time spent preparing one bowl for a guest. Abroad, many people come to matcha because it looks good, feels healthy and is easy to order in a café. The way in is different, but the bowl is the same, and so is the extra labour for the farmers who cover, pick and process the leaves.

How to buy and make matcha

• Check the ingredients. Matcha is made from tencha. A product labelled only "powdered green tea" may be ground sencha, a different and cheaper tea.
• "Ceremonial grade" is not a Japanese standard. Kyoto tea merchant Ippodo says the term was invented to market matcha overseas and is not used in Japan. Look for the region, the producer and the production date instead.
• Buy small tins. Matcha is sensitive to light, moisture, heat and odours. Once opened, seal it, keep it somewhere cool and dark, and use it up quickly.
• The basic method (Kyoto Prefecture's tea research institute): sift about 2 g of matcha (two scoops with a bamboo chashaku, or a light teaspoon) into a bowl. Cool boiled water to 70-80°C and measure 70 ml. Mix the powder with a little of the water into a smooth paste, add the rest, and whisk briskly back and forth with a bamboo whisk until fine foam forms. A café-au-lait bowl works fine.
• Keep cooking and drinking matcha separate. Use a cheaper, punchier one for baking and lattes, and a small amount of better tea to drink plain.

For the thinking behind Japanese food and tea, see Japanese food beyond sushi and ramen: the art of subtraction.

How is Japanese wagyu different from "wagyu" elsewhere?

In Japan, beef can be labelled wagyu only if it comes from four native breeds (Japanese Black, Japanese Brown, Japanese Shorthorn and Japanese Polled) or crosses between them, born and raised in Japan. Wagyu raised elsewhere is a different product.

JETRO, Japan's trade promotion agency, explains that wagyu genetics left Japan for Australia, the US and elsewhere between the 1970s and the 1990s, so "wagyu" from other countries is widely sold. Since 2007, beef sold in Japan as wagyu has needed proof of breed and of birth and rearing in Japan, and in 2017 Japan relaunched a unified Japanese Wagyu logo to distinguish its beef abroad. Japan exported ¥73.1 billion of beef in 2025 (12,628 tonnes including processed products), led by the US, Taiwan and Hong Kong. We removed the old claim about "300 tonnes of A5 wagyu": Japan does not publish exports by grade.

How to check: In Japan, every pack of beef carries a 10-digit cattle ID number. Enter it into the National Livestock Breeding Center's online search and you can see the breed and where the animal was born and raised. Abroad, "Wagyu" on a menu tells you little; ask which country the beef came from, and if it is from Japan, whether it carries the Japanese Wagyu logo. As for grades, under the Japan Meat Grading Association's rules the "A" in A5 measures yield and the "5" combines marbling, colour, firmness and fat quality. It is not the only measure of flavour: leaner Japanese Brown or Shorthorn beef is worth trying.

How did katsu curry become a British "Japanese" dish?

Through Wagamama, a chain founded in London in 1992 that put katsu curry on its menu. A British-born chain, not a Japanese company, made a Japanese home-cooking dish a UK staple.

According to a February 2026 presentation by JETRO's London office, Wagamama now has 172 restaurants in the UK and is known for katsu curry and ramen. The biggest Japanese-style chains in Britain, including Itsu (83) and Kokoro (77), were founded by non-Japanese entrepreneurs, and the UK has about 1,823 Japanese restaurants (2025). No Japanese-owned restaurant chain has more than ten UK branches: CoCo Ichibanya has had two since 2018, and Marugame Seimen nine. That is why we removed our earlier claim of "over 50 stores in Europe".

The dish has come full circle. Curry most likely reached Japan through the British Royal Navy in the Meiji era. MAFF's regional food database describes one account: the Japanese navy, struggling with beriberi on a diet of white rice, adopted the British navy's curry-flavoured stew and thickened it to go with rice and stay put on a rolling ship. From India to Britain, Britain to Japan, and back to Britain as katsu curry, now sold as ready meals in British supermarkets.

Miso and soy sauce: from restaurants into home kitchens

Japan exported ¥7.1 billion of miso (23,825 tonnes) and ¥13.5 billion of soy sauce in 2025, the US being the largest buyer of both. Sauces and mixed seasonings, which include curry roux and dressings, reached ¥72.2 billion.

After the US, miso goes mainly to the Netherlands, the UK, Taiwan and Canada; the EU takes about a fifth. Seasonings let people cook Japanese food at home without visiting a restaurant. For the flavour science, see What is umami? and Koji, umami and fermentation.

Starting with miso: make dashi, cook the vegetables or tofu, then lower the heat and dissolve the miso without letting the soup boil. White miso is sweeter; red miso is saltier and stronger. Keep opened miso in the fridge with film pressed onto the surface.

Why now?

Several things overlap: UNESCO's 2013 listing of washoku, record tourism to Japan, interest in balanced diets, and Japanese flavours becoming easy to cook at home. Economics matter too, as the fall in Asian restaurant numbers shows.

• In 2013 washoku, traditional Japanese dietary culture, was added to UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. MAFF highlights its balanced "one soup, three dishes" structure and its links to seasonal festivals.
• Japan received a record 42.68 million visitors in 2025 (Japan National Tourism Organization estimate). In Japan Tourism Agency surveys, "eating Japanese food" has topped the list of what visitors look forward to before coming: 78.3% in 2022 and 69.7% in 2019. Many try to recreate those meals at home.
• A weak yen makes Japanese products cheaper abroad, but currencies move. Export plans built on the exchange rate alone rarely last.

We removed our old claims that Japanese food "is being medically proven" healthy and that the market is "worth ¥10 trillion": we could not find a source for either.

A checklist for Japanese producers going abroad

1. Choose markets with data. MAFF publishes export figures by item and country for free. Tea sells in the US and Europe, beef in the US and Taiwan, beer in Korea and China.
2. Check rules and labelling first: additives, pesticide residues, origin labels, halal certification. JETRO's country guides are a good start.
3. Protect your name with origin and quality marks such as the Japanese Wagyu logo.
4. Explain the work in a sentence of English. "Shaded for three weeks before picking"; "aged a year in the brewery". It explains the price.
5. Don't overpromise volume. When demand jumps, as with matcha, supply takes years to catch up.
6. Partner locally. Britain's largest Japanese-style chains were all founded by non-Japanese entrepreneurs and grew with local investors; JETRO notes no Japanese chain there has passed ten branches.
7. Use public support: JETRO, and MAFF's export support platform GFP.

Common mistakes: treating "the Japanese food boom" as one market; insisting on "made in Japan" without explaining why it costs more; dismissing matcha lattes or katsu curry as "not real Japanese food"; and pricing on the assumption that the yen stays weak.

Frequently asked questions

How many Japanese restaurants are there outside Japan? About 181,000 in 2025, according to MAFF, down from about 187,000 in 2023. The survey is carried out every two years.

What is the difference between matcha and powdered green tea? Matcha is ground tencha, from bushes shaded before picking and leaves dried without rolling. Powdered sencha is a different tea.

Is "wagyu" on a menu always from Japan? No. Much wagyu is raised in Australia, the US and elsewhere. Ask where it was raised.

Is Japanese curry Indian food? It came to Japan via Britain in the Meiji era and was reshaped into a thick, mild sauce served over rice.

Where can I buy Japanese ingredients when visiting Tokyo? Food markets are a good start; see our Tsukiji Outer Market guide. For table manners, see Dining manners in Japan, and for regional dishes, Beyond sushi: Japan's regional cuisine. Many of Japan's oldest companies are breweries: see Why Japan has so many old companies.

Sources and dates checked (all checked on 2026-10-26)

• MAFF, survey of Japanese restaurants abroad (2025), 28 November 2025, with annexes — maff.go.jp/j/press/yusyutu_kokusai/kai… , maff.go.jp/j/press/yusyutu_kokusai/kai… (primary)
• Nihon Shokuryo Shimbun, commentary on the 2025 decline — news.nissyoku.co.jp/news/wakui20260204011855502
• MAFF, 2025 agricultural, forestry and fishery export results by item and country (based on Ministry of Finance trade statistics) — maff.go.jp/j/shokusan/export/e_info/at… (primary)
• Akita Sakigake Shimpo, "2025 food exports ¥1.7 trillion, 13th straight record", 3 February 2026 — sakigake.jp/news/article/20260203CO0040
• MAFF, "The situation of tea", October 2026 (tencha production, regions, prices, powdered share, 2026 exports) — maff.go.jp/j/seisan/tokusan/cha/attach… (primary)
• Reports on the 2025 matcha shortage summarising Reuters and BBC — intellinews.com/matcha-shortage-in-japan-as… , tokyocheapo.com/lifestyle/matcha-shortage-j…
• Ippodo Tea, "Is Ippodo matcha ceremonial grade?" — support.global.ippodo-tea.co.jp/hc/en-us/articles/440403723… (primary; automated access blocked on 2026-10-26, checked via search excerpt); VinePair, "Do matcha grades mean anything?" — vinepair.com/articles/do-matcha-grades-m…
• Kyoto Prefecture Tea Industry Research Institute, how to make matcha — pref.kyoto.jp/chaken/irekata_maccha.html (primary)
• JETRO, "Wagyu" (breeds, labelling rules, unified logo, overseas wagyu) — jetro.go.jp/agriportal/pickup/wagyu.htm… (primary); nippon.com, "Wagyu" — nippon.com/ja/features/h00122
• MAFF, "What is the cattle ID number on packaged beef?" — maff.go.jp/j/heya/sodan/1901/02.html (primary); Kagoshima Prefecture FAQ on beef traceability — pref.kagoshima.jp/ag07/faq/sangyo-rodo/nogyo/… ; National Livestock Breeding Center cattle ID search — id.nlbc.go.jp
• Japan Meat Grading Association, beef carcass grading standards — jmga.or.jp/standard/beef (primary)
• JETRO London office, "Guidelines for restaurant businesses expanding abroad: the UK case", February 2026 — maff.go.jp/j/kokusai/kokkyo/attach/pdf… (primary)
• Wikipedia, "Katsu curry" and "Japanese curry" (cross-check) — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsu_curry , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_curry
• MAFF regional food database, Yokosuka navy curry (Kanagawa) — maff.go.jp/j/keikaku/syokubunka/k_ryou… (primary)
• MAFF, Washoku and UNESCO — maff.go.jp/j/keikaku/syokubunka/ich (primary)
• MAFF, food culture and inbound tourism (Japan Tourism Agency 2022 survey: 78.3%) — maff.go.jp/j/nousin/kouryu/nouhakusuis… (primary); Gendai Business (2019 survey: 69.7%) — gendai.media/articles/-/119511
• Honichi Lab, 2025 visitor arrivals 42.68 million (JNTO estimate), 21 January 2026 — honichi.com/news/2026/01/21/inbound2025… ; JNTO statistics — jnto.go.jp/statistics/data/visitors-st…
• Images: Wikimedia Commons file pages (licences checked) — commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:宇治の覆下園.jpg , commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katsu_Curry_Wagam… , commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Miso_001.jpg

By J-Times Editorial (information as of 2026-10-26)