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Free Japanese allergy & diet card
Choose your allergies and diet. The card below is written in polite Japanese using the same template as the Ekiben app, and it names the hidden ingredients that catch travellers out. Show it on your phone, print it, or save it.
These two lines apply to the allergies you pick above.
Your card
Pick at least one allergy or diet to build your card.
Translation
Your choices are saved in this browser only.
This card helps you communicate; it can’t guarantee a dish is safe. For severe allergies, carry your medication, double-check with staff, and call 119 in an emergency.
Hidden ingredients to know in Japan
- Dashi (だし)
- The base of miso soup, noodle broth and many sauces is usually made from bonito (katsuobushi) or other fish. A “vegetable” dish is often not vegetarian.
- Soy sauce (しょうゆ)
- Regular soy sauce is brewed with wheat, so it is not gluten-free. It is in almost everything, from teriyaki to dipping sauces.
- Mirin & cooking sake (みりん・料理酒)
- Sweet rice wine and cooking sake season countless dishes. Important if you avoid alcohol completely.
- Lard & pork-bone broth (ラード・豚骨)
- Used in gyoza, fried rice and many ramen broths, including some that are not called tonkotsu.
- Gelatin (ゼラチン)
- Found in desserts, jellies and some sweets. It is usually pork-derived.
- Buckwheat (そば)
- Soba noodles are often cooked in the same water as udon, and soba flour turns up in snacks and tea.
How to use your card
- Show it before you order, ideally when you sit down.
- Let staff check with the kitchen: 厨房に確認してまいります means they are asking.
- They can tap 入っています (it contains it) or 入っていません (it doesn’t) on the full-screen card.
- Packaged food in Japan must label major allergens such as shrimp, crab, walnut, wheat, buckwheat, egg, milk and peanuts, but restaurant dishes usually are not labeled.
In the app, the card lives in My Cards, works offline and opens full screen with one tap.