You should probably avoid all soups. Many have a bonito fish base, even sometimes if it’s labeled vegetarian.

Note how allergic is he. Even if the chef says "dish X does not contain this allergen" they are not talking about cross contamination, which is absolutely a thing. They are not preparing fish/shellfish on separate cutting boards, knives, etc.

Have you come across Happy Cow/Japan yet? It's an aggregator of vegan and vegetarian restaurants across the globe. I've specifically provided the Japan link. There is also a mobile app.

Heartily recommend:

1. Denny’s (all-day!): great omurice, Naporitan, etc. Decent desserts. Adults can have a whisky highball.

2. Gusto / Royal Host (family restaurant chains): large selection and very kid friendly, both Japanese and more western options.

3. Bikkuri Donkey (hamburger steaks): known for their hambagu

4. Yakiniku Like (beef): a chain for grilled beef on rice. See https://yakiniku-like-asakusa.com/en_us/yakiniku-set/

These large chains have better allergen info and are very much authentic/not tourist traps.

My daughter has the exact same allergies as your son, and we just came back from Tokyo and Kyoto over the holidays.

This is what I did before the trip:
- I made reservations online and specified the allergies she had in the notes section
- I used Google Translate to write "My daughter is allergic to xyz, please let the kitchen staff know, thank you so much!" in Japanese and English, then handed the print-out to the waiter.
- Brought lots of Zyrtec (which usually helps my daughter whenever she has a mild reaction during meals) and of course her Epi-Pens

Overall she had a relatively good time, but I will say she had three mild reactions (puffy lip, "weird feeling on my tongue") over the course of the trip, which were resolved with the Zyrtec pills.

Japan is just really difficult to navigate for those with fish/shellfish allergies. Even if there's no fish/shellfish present, I can't be sure they did not use any dash in the soup base / sauces.

I would go with hot pot (Kyoto Kyoto Ekimae Honten, near Kyoto Station) and teppanyaki (Kobe Beef Mouriya Gion). We also had good experiences with tonkatsu and yakitori (grilled chicken) but those were in Tokyo. There are also 7-Eleven and other konbinis that offer sandwiches for easy to-go meals. We also did one lunch at McDonald's because we knew that would be safe!

If I had to plan this trip again, I would maybe add a couple Italian restaurants or some other western cuisine to the mix.

My boyfriend has similar allergies. He is allergic to fish protein. We leave on Friday for our first japan trip. I also couldn't find specific restaurant recs from anyone whose gone before with this allergy but I understand wanting that to ease your mind other people survived. I want that too.

We'll be your guinea pig! We get back home on 1/31 and are only doing tokyo and nagano region. I'll keep a list for you of where/what he could eat successfully in tokyo for you to reference. He cant handle cross contamination and the only seafood he can eat is shrimp, oysters, lobster, and mussels. He's severly allergic to all other sea food. Not exactly the same as yours, but if someone can accommodate us it feels likely they can accommodate your son. 

I did a lot of research and other folks are right to look at everything. Even milk is fortified with oysters in some cases. I've also heard that if something is only a seasoning it doesn't need to be labeled as an ingredient. I cant verify that but we're going to be very careful and I'll let you know how it goes! The good news is I've read other people lived with these allergies. 

I have these same allergies! Had lots of skewers, chicken katsu curry, tonkatsu ramen, japanese bbq, hot pot, gyoza. Be sure to translate ingredients on packaged goods even if you’re pretty sure they’re safe.

I live in Tokyo. I’m also vegan, so I pay a lot of attention to food ingredients. Japan has very lax food labeling laws compared to where I’m from, which is one reason why many people mistakenly believe that the food here is superior (it’s not - they just don’t list a lot of ingredients on the labels, and it’s completely legal).

Tree nuts and peanuts are not commonly used in Japanese cuisine, and when they are it’s obvious (like in desserts). They don’t really use peanut oil.

There is a lot of fish. Dashi (bonito stock) is used in a lot of sauces, and even though it comes from fish, it’s not considered an allergen in Japan so if a food is labeled as not containing fish, it could still contain dashi/bonito. I know this because as a vegan, it’s hard sometimes to trust the food labels because there will be no mark for fish allergen, but if you read the ingredients list the product will still contain dashi. And if it’s below a certain percentage, it doesn’t have to be listed at all on the label. For instance many of the “vegetarian” onigiri at the convenience stores contain dashi but it’s not listed as an ingredient on the labels.

Also, sometimes foods that you wouldn’t expect to contain fish will contain traces of fish, so you can’t just buy anything without reading the ingredients.

Japan’s food labels only require 8 allergens to be listed (shrimp, crab, egg, milk, wheat, buckwheat, peanut), with a total of 20 allergens recommended to be listed.

Component ingredients also aren’t always listed. For instance, if you purchase tuna salad, the ingredients list could state “tuna, mayonnaise, salt, pepper”. Instead of “tuna, mayonnaise (eggs, oil, vinegar, salt), salt, pepper…”. Most people know that mayonnaise contains eggs, but there are other sauces or ingredients used in recipes that just won’t list the component ingredients on the label, so it’s really a mystery.

There are a lot of vegan restaurants in Tokyo and restaurants that serve labeled vegan dishes. If you want to be absolutely sure to avoid fish or shellfish, I’d recommend checking out the vegan places. There are even a few all-vegan bakeries with amazing desserts (some could contain nuts).

I recommend using the HappyCow website, as well as joining the “Vegan Japan” facebook group.

You could opt for vegan restaurants, which would eliminate the ever-present fish danger

In addition to the other suggestions, strongly recommend downloading the Japanese language package on the Google Translate app. I've got different restrictions (I only eat meat that's zabiha halal so end up defaulting vegetarian often) and I used it constantly to check the ingredients and allergen lists on packaged food. It was extremely common for me to see something that I would assume was vegetarian and would be fine (ex. a frozen cheese pizza) only to find it listed meat or shrimp in the allergen list after translating.

1) There's a lot of supermarkets. I would get a place that has a kitchen and shop for food / make your own bento lunches for the day for a decent amount of the trip.

2) Use the app HappyCow to find vegan and vegetarian restaurants.

3) The ubiquitous Chicken kebabs at the 7/11s and Family Marts are usually a pretty safe bet.

4) Fluffy pancakes are definitely Japanese without the seafood issue. Definitely check those out.

Japan's food allergy labelling system for packaged food is actually pretty good. It's a grid format on the back of most packaging and if you memorize the kanji characters (or in peanut's case, often katakana) for those allergens, you can scan the packaging for peanut, shrimp and crab, as those will almost always be marked. But the harder part is there's rarely anything labelled "fish" - it'll be labelled by the species name - salmon, abalone, mackerel, tuna, etc.

My kiddo has an anaphylactic walnut/pecan allergy and we had to be very cautious in fancy bakeries. Peanuts are not anywhere near as common in deserts as tree nuts thankfully.

These articles may help.

• Food Allergies in Japan: How to Enjoy Traveling Safely with a Food Allergy or Intolerance
• Quick Guide: Know And Understand Food Allergies In Japan
• Traveling to Japan With a Food Allergy
• Six Must-Know Words When Traveling in Japan with Food Allergies
• If you have a food allergy, medical condition, or dietary restriction that isn’t covered by one of the free cards, you can order custom cards online from a site like Select Wisely.
• JNTO: Vegetarian and Vegan Guide to Japan
• Happy Cow: Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurants in Japan
• Keeping Vegetarian in Japan: Traditional Cooking Basics
• Kanji Guide for Vegetarians and Vegans in Japan
• Is it Vegan? (Japan)
• Vegan’s Guide to Japanese Convenience Stores
• Vegan in Japan: An Impossible Task?: How To Enjoy Japan As A Vegan!
• Vegan Ramen in Tokyo
• Best pork-free ramen in Tokyo

In my experience (vegetarian) the best is for you to learn a little Japanese because im my experience Kyoto and Osaka doesn't understand English as frequently as Tokyo. You can send email to some restaurants beforehand!

I use this list for vegetarian and vegan options and restaurants, might make your search easier! Best to mark down the places beforehand than be searching while there

https://maps.app.goo.gl/mXMPgNkvABRcYqhx9?g_st=ac

I hope you find good restaurant options before you go! If you do some drop-ins, be aware that a lot of Japanese residents-- including cooks-- don't consider fish 'meat'. They'll frequently list things as vegetarian that have fish in them. Vegan places should be safe, though.

We navigated Japan for 23 days with a legume allergy. We had copies of an allergy card in Japanese that we would give to the restaurant. We did our best to explain in Japanese. There were no issues, everyone understood the allergy and accommodated us. On several occasions restaurants couldn’t guarantee safety and were apologetic while we were grateful.

Lots of great suggestions here! I also want to add that you should check out the subreddit r/veganinjapan. Tons of good restaurant recommendations and tips. I hope you and your son have a fantastic time 🧡

Hi,

I have fish allergy (although lately I haven’t been very safe about it) and to be quite honest you might have to be willing to be okay with some western food or food from other cultures because there’s just so many dishes that use fish products in their soup bases, sauces etc.

At the top of my head here are some dishes that may not have traces

• katsu (no katsudon because of dashi base), and make sure the food isn’t fried in the same oil as fish (for example if they also serve tempura)

• omurice

• yakiniku 

• yakitori

• okonomiyaki , however if a shared grill there might be contamination 

• gyozas

• nice onigiri specialty restaurants (contamination likely though) 

Many soups and curries will use dashi as a base even though they might seem seafood free to the naked eye

I have a very bad shellfish allergy and someone on this site referred me to this site:
https://equaleats.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopQq5pDDXrKQvexl-didCE7wAX2gldnX2x7arPuWcBgvafX3660

They can send you credit cards size cards in Japanese and English with your allergies and also send them electronically for your phone. They are great.
We found that Japanese restaurants take allergies very seriously. When we showed my card, they would show the chef and everything would be prepared with special care.
Eating in Japan is a challenge when there is so much shellfish and fish in things. Don't eat miso soup, which almost always has shellfish broth. Go to katsu places, where you can get pork or chicken cutlets and rice. We found noodle shops that didn't have fish broth, but you had to ask everywhere. There are also department store restaurants and places like that with Italian food--pasta, etc. It is a challenge, but you will manage it.
Have a wonderful trip! Best of luck to you and your son.

I’m just going to throw this out there but maybe cruising around japan is an option so you have a ‘safe’ place where food can be prepare as you need in addition to one place to stay and see a variety of cities. You can start in Tokyo and do a circle japan cruise.

I was similar to your son. Copy and paste a translated message indicating his allergies.

The Japanese are very careful about allergies once you notify them.

I would suggest skipping all soups as they almost always have fish sauce.

I've personally never had an issue in Japan despite my allergies doing these simple communications with the Japanese.

Beef and rice. All day every day.

I have celiac and Japan is really though with allergies. I think by sticking to major tourist cities, you should be able to find places to eat that are safe. I would also consider staying somewhere with a kitchen/kitchenette, and making 1-2 of your own meals a day, so you don't have to worry about searching for food every second of the day.

When you have the allergy text written out and ready to go come back here so people can asses! I hope your son has a wonderful trip 🥰

Sharing this restaurant in Kyoto just in case, we were there last week and I recall seeing a sign saying they had vegan options, it was a great vibe in there! Menkui Kinya - https://maps.app.goo.gl/qwDtMXjKcc6uRWsP8?g_st=ic

When you go to family restaurants or one of the many curry chains etc they got allergy information on the menu.

Make an allergy card before you come here.

Nuts is not that common in cooking here so overall that’s not gonna be a problem (my mother is allergic to peanuts so when she comes visit I always make sure but it’s never a problem).

Have a nice trip.

My son is allergic to seafood and msg. He stays away from tempura items bec the flour contains msg.

In Osaka, we go to Jojoen for yakiniku, shabuwara for sukiyaki and M for teppanyaki.

I have nothing to add but hope you all have a wonderful time, I imagine you’ve had so much stress.

When dining out, consider using a translation app to communicate specific allergies to staff. Many restaurants in Japan may not fully understand foreign dietary restrictions, so being clear is crucial. It's also wise to stick to larger chains that might have standardized menus, which can help reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

don't laugh at me, but McDonald's could be one of the safest restaurants for allergies as long as you don't order sundaes

Try the Atly app

Just eat sensei ramen and halal spots. You’ll be fine