Traveling or living in Japan can be an exciting experience for food lovers, but for people with food allergies or intolerances, navigating Japanese menus can be challenging. The good news is that with a few key phrases and strategies, you can communicate your dietary needs safely and clearly, according to Hello-Hello, a leading Japanese language learning app developer for iOS and Android devices.  

Understanding the Terminology

First, it’s important to know how to express allergies and intolerances in Japanese:

• Food Allergy – 食物アレルギー (shokumotsu arerugī)
• Intolerance – 不耐症 (futai-shō)
• Peanut allergy – ピーナッツアレルギー (pīnattsu arerugī)
• Gluten intolerance – グルテン不耐症 (guruten futai-shō)
• Lactose intolerance – 乳糖不耐症 (nyūtō futai-shō)  

Key Phrases to Use at the Restaurants

When dining out, you can use simple, polite phrases to inform staff about your allergies: “I have a food allergy.”

1. • 食物アレルギーがあります (Shokumotsu arerugī ga arimasu)

“I cannot eat [ingredient].”

1. • [Ingredient] は食べられません ([Ingredient] wa taberaremasen)
   • Example: ピーナッツは食べられません (Pīnattsu wa taberaremasen) – “I cannot eat peanuts.”

“Does this contain [ingredient]?”

1. • これは[Ingredient]が入っていますか？ (Kore wa [Ingredient] ga haitte imasu ka?)

“I am allergic to [ingredient].”

1. • 私は[Ingredient]にアレルギーがあります (Watashi wa [Ingredient] ni arerugī ga arimasu)

Tips for Effective Communication

Carry an allergy card: Prepare a small card in Japanese listing all your allergies. You can hand it to the waiter or chef.

Learn common allergens: Japan’s top allergens include eggs (卵 tamago), milk (牛乳 gyūnyū), wheat (小麦 komugi), peanuts (ピーナッツ pīnattsu), and shrimp (えび ebi). Knowing these words helps you identify ingredients on menus.

Use gestures or photos: If language barriers arise, pointing to ingredients or using a translation app can prevent misunderstandings.

Choose allergy-friendly restaurants: Many international chains and vegan or vegetarian restaurants are more familiar with allergy concerns and can accommodate requests more easily.   Travelling in Japan with food allergies or intolerances doesn’t have to be stressful. By learning the right vocabulary, carrying an allergy card, and asking polite questions, you can enjoy Japanese cuisine safely. Being proactive and clear about your dietary needs is the key to a worry-free and enjoyable dining experience. With these simple phrases and strategies, navigating restaurants in Japan becomes much easier, allowing you to focus on the flavors, culture, and experience without fear of allergic reactions.    

Learn Japanese (Hello-Hello)

Hello-Hello, which is the leading mobile language learning application developer, offers users a unique opportunity to learn the Japanese language with iOS and Android Apps. Learn Japanese by Hello-Hello iPhone app, which is developed in collaboration with The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), offers 30 conversational lessons based on real-life situations rather than a collection of out-of-context words and phrases. Dialogues are presented and then broken down into sentence by sentence where you can practice pronunciation and writing skills. The key features of Hello-Hello’s Japanese app that make it THE BEST language learning app available on iTunes are –

• Animated videos and comic strips– New games to practice reading and listening skills
• Cleaner and more friendly user interface
• Follow your course progress
• Take notes
• Receive notifications with lesson reminders. The more you practice, the more you learn!
• Receive notifications with new words to build your vocabulary.

Android Play – Learn Japanese Hello-Hello, iTunes Store – Learn Japanese (Hello-Hello)