Trip to Japan with a Peanut Allergy

For context, my peanut allergy is at a severity where ingesting a singular peanut or peanut products would trigger an anaphylactic reaction, but I’m not allergic to the point where I can’t have someone eating peanuts next to me. As a result, I tend to be fairly careful when I eat out and always carry 2 Epi-Pens with me.

**Preparing for the Trip:**

If possible, try to book with Japan Airlines (JAL) or All Nippon Airways (ANA) since both airlines are great when it comes to people with peanut allergies. My understanding is that JAL completely stopped serving peanuts aboard their planes back in 2014. Even though ANA hasn’t completely eliminated peanuts from their menu, they offer allergen free meals that you can request as long as you give them a call at least 48 hours before departure. From having personally experienced the latter, it is quite a painless process and the flight attendants are very attentive to ensure that your entire meal is allergen free. On my outbound ANA flight from the US, they even offered me a tablet where I was able to double check the ingredient list of each item that was served to me. Alternatively, you could pack your own meal(s) instead to have even more confidence the meal is free of peanuts. All of that said, I still kept both Epi-Pens on my person for the duration of the flight.

While I knew that Japanese cuisine did not use much peanuts to begin with, I still wanted to be extra careful by learning how to say that I was allergic to peanuts in Japanese and some related phrases that would help clarify if it was alright for me to eat something. I was also learning other tourist survival phrases at the time so it took me about a month, but I think that you could probably learn just those phrases in a week. I printed out little notes stating that I was deathly allergic to peanuts, but I completely forgot to bring them so I saved a screen shot on my phone that I could show to the staff in the event that my Japanese did not suffice. If you don’t already carry an Epi-Pen(s), I strongly recommend getting 1 or ideally 2 so that you can bring them with you on your trip.

Questions I had before the trip that others may have as well:

1. Can you bring Epi-Pens to Japan?
* Yes
2. How many Epi-Pens can I bring to Japan?
* I personally brought 2 Epi-Pens with me, but this question is a little hard to answer since the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Japan says “Up to 1 month supply”
3. Do I need to fill out a Yunyu Kakunin-sho (import certificate)?
* No
4. Do I need to declare my Epi-Pens at customs?
* No
5. Will customs/security need to examine my Epi-Pens?
* No, customs barely looked at my bag (carry on only) and on my flight out from Japan security gave me no issues for carrying Epi-Pens with me.
6. Who can I contact if I have more questions?
* If you are flying into Tokyo you can email [yakkan@mhlw.go.jp](mailto:yakkan@mhlw.go.jp)

Resources:

* [JAL Elimination of peanuts from their meals](https://www.jal.co.jp/en/jalpri/support/allergy.html)
* [ANA Allergen free meals](https://www.ana.co.jp/en/us/travel-information/meals/#anchor-children-other-special-meals)
* [Learn how to say “I’m allergic to \_\_\_\_\_” in Japanese](https://nihongodekita.com/food-allergy-in-japanese-use-our-free-downloadable-allergy-card/)
* [Post on peanut allergy card](https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/comments/16s24pj/english_japanese_peanut_allergy_card/)
* [Peanut allergy card](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fenglish-japanese-peanut-allergy-card-v0-mxwx9f0a4wqb1.png%3Fwidth%3D5116%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D867b78de825451c233bb61c6896f5a83ad1aa665) by u/CauliflowerFew7729
* [Embassy of Japan in the United States of America](https://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/bringing-medications-to-japan.html)
* [Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Japan](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/policy/health-medical/pharmaceuticals/01.html)

**While in Japan:**

Most restaurants and bars will likely still have a English menu if you ask for it even if it isn’t a restaurant in particularly touristy part of town. Worse case, you can use the camera function in the Google translate app to translate the menu. You should be able to take a guess at whether something likely contains peanuts if you have some familiarity with Japanese cuisine.

*Traditional sit down restaurants:*

I told my server at essentially every sit down location that I ate at that I was allergic to peanuts and asked if the specific dish that I was planning to order contained peanuts. Generally what would happen is the server would tell me to wait one moment, ask the kitchen staff, and then tell me that everything was alright. Sometimes staff will also come back and ask if you’re also allergic to other common allergens like soybeans and sesame which I thought was nice of them. At times it felt kind of funny doing so since I couldn’t imagine why a dish would have peanuts, but I wanted to be extra safe as I was worried about cross contamination or different preparation methods; I’ll address this a little later for a case in Osaka.

*Tablet/ticket vending machine restaurants/food stalls/street food:*

When it came to sit down restaurants where you had to order from a vending machine or tablet, I would normally catch one of the staff’s attention to tell them that I was allergic to peanuts and ask if an item was alright to order. I would do the same when it came to street foods, snack shops, cafes, etc. However, things can vary a little here since the vendors who are normally making the foods themselves can confidently tell you, but when it came to foods the vendor didn’t make themselves and just being sold at stalls there was less confidence. For the most part, if it seemed like they weren’t confident that something didn’t contain peanuts, they would just tell me no you shouldn’t eat that. That said, if they seemed unconfident after I said my part I already mentally made the executive decision to not eat the item; trust your gut here.

*Snacks and other packaged foods:*

I’m not really someone that snacks too much, but Japan has so many snacks that looked interesting. For that I used the Google Translate camera function to live translate packaging on items to make sure they didn’t contain peanuts. I noticed that for most if not all packaging, there was a section where they would list the 7 major allergens if the item contained 1 or more of them.

*Bars:*

Bars in my opinion were the second biggest concern as they’ll normally give you a bowl of dry snacks that may include nuts shortly after you sit down. I completely avoided them and I suggest you doing the same if your allergy is as severe as mine.

*Yokohama’s Chinatown:*

While I only spent an afternoon in Yokohama’s Chinatown, that was by far the area where I was the most hesitant to try any food. It was fun to check out, but I was very concerned about trying out most of the food since I knew that peanuts are much more common in Chinese cuisine. Even though I did eventually get lunch at a restaurant there, it was a little nerve wracking since it didn’t seem that Japanese was the employees first language and I had to used Google translate to ensure my meal didn’t contain peanuts.

*Osaka:*

Osaka was the only city where I was turned away from restaurants due to my peanut allergy, but the staff were very apologetic about it. It was only 2 restaurants that I was turned away from during my 2 week trip. It really surprised me since they were both Udon restaurants. It seems I wasn’t aware that certain Udon dishes were prepared with peanuts or could have the potential for cross contamination with peanuts. The first location in Osaka station was very bizarre since I had flagged down one of the staff asking about peanuts before ordering at the vending machine and they told me I was good to order a beef Udon bowl. However, after I paid and queued in line to get my order, the person who I believe was the chef came up to me telling me there were peanuts, took my ticket I got from the vending machine, and gave me a refund. I ended up leaving very confused, which took me to another Udon place that also turned me away.

I ended up going to a Yakisoba place after being turned away from the two Udon places. This was the only time where I felt that my Japanese just completely failed to communicate that I was allergic to peanuts and had to resort to the screenshot on my phone stating that I was deathly allergic to peanuts. After the server took my order, I believe I heard him sigh and mutter difficult under his breath in Japanese. Do take this with a grain of salt as I had only been learning tourist survival phrases in Japanese for about a month so I could have very easily misheard.

**Closing Thoughts:**

Although travelling with a severe allergy to a country where you don’t speak or read the language can be scary, I don’t think that a peanut allergy will stop you from enjoying most of the delicious food Japan has to offer. Most places are extremely accommodating and are happy to check with the kitchen to ensure you don’t have an allergic reaction. While I did have some places that gave me a bit of concern, those were the exception and not the norm. For reference, I was eating out 2-3 times a day for 2 weeks not including snacks/food stalls/bars and felt safe doing so 99% of the time. As always though, I kept both Epi-Pens on my person at all times. I hope this is helpful to anyone else who may be travelling to Japan with a peanut allergy – safe travels!

by bot692021