I am new here too. This is my first post. I live in Tokyo and have known for about 20 years that I have trouble with wheat. I suspected celiac after a friend was diagosed with it. But I need more information about what I need to stay away from. Bread and pasta, cakes, etc. are obvious, but what about soy sauce, modified food starch, sweet (glutenous) rice, Japanese barley tea? Are there any doctors here who know about this disease?

Joanna

Welcome to the board! Other than the obvious, watch out for soy sauce for sure. Funny how so many brands of soy sauce are not made of soy. As for the rest, I'm not sure of the labelling laws in Japan, so I can't help you out. Is there a Celiac society or association you can access in Tokyo? Sweet rice is okay, it's just called glutinous rice because it's sticky not because it contains gluten.

Just to be picky... it's not that soy sauce isn't made of soy. They use wheat in the production process somehow, soy sauce is mostly soy in every case, but it can have some wheat as well. There are soy sauces that are only soy, but those are hard to find...

Pauliina

You're right Pauliina, I should have been more precise. Not ONLY made of soy. It's remarkable how many do have wheat before soy in the ingredient list though. There are two brands (in Canada) that I can find easily, but I know how many others have to go to a health food store or organic store to buy gluten-free soy sauce.

I'm in Tokyo too.



Hi Joanna,

I live here too and found out I had Coeliacs Disease when I went back to Australia for lots of tests. Since then I have learnt a lot this year and have been getting better. One thing I can recommend is the Foreign Buyers Club on the internet. I buy lots of gluten-free pasta on it. Do you know the kanji for all of our 'taboo' products? I can't post it on this website, but if you are interested, then please reply and I can get that information to you some other way. Once you know which kanji to look for it is really easy because the laws are very clear about labelling and so all products use the same format.

I haven't come across any doctors who know about this disease here so I go through my Australian doc.

Hope to have helped. OH and also you can order many wheat free products once a month from the CO-OP shopping centre which is home delivered. It is in Japanese and so would be a bit difficult if you can't read Japanese.

Anyway, good luck,

AlisoninJapan

麦、小麦、小麦粉

All of the above represent wheat. Watch out, it may also be at the bottom of the label with something like...

のー卵、小麦、牛乳

Hope this helps.

Also beware of 全麦　[zen-mugi] (whole wheat). As for convenience stores, I would recommend you be careful with most onigiri (rice balls)... I constantly check the labels and have found that most of them have a disclaimer saying "some ingredients may contain wheat" or something like that (mind you, my reading is still not so great).

I would also recommend you be wary of the 　そば　[soba] buckwheat noodles on sale at most supermarkets. Almost all of the brands I have checked contain wheat - it seems that the cheaper the brand the more wheat and less soba it contains. However, there is a brand that I have found in regular grocery stores in Nagoya with １０割そば　[ju-wari soba] (100% soba) clearly listed on the label. I have also been able to find wheat-free soy sauce at the local su-pa.

Definitely be careful with curries... I have only found two brands so far that do not contain wheat. Look for Yamamori Thai Curry (clearly written in roman letters on the package) if you are looking for something wheat free.

At the moment I am mainly suspicious that I have a gluten intolerance and am looking for an actual diagnosis. Has anyone out there been tested in Japan? I think there must be a few celiacs around, as the wheat-free soy sauce I bought mentioned something about it being for people with a "wheat allergy."

I am thinking of doing a 人間ドック examination soon in Nagoya and getting everything checked out.

アドバイス please！

Last time I checked in March only 1 onigiri at family mart in Tokyo was gluten free. all at 7-11, daily yamazaki and lawsons had wheat or some type of mugi.

The wheat-free shoyu I had in Nagoya was made in Calif. by San-J which is San Jurushi a Nagoya Kaisha.

Your right about the soba and curry. Got so tired of trying to find juwari that I jsut get sobako and took a noodle class in Saitama so I make my own now. Curry too. Nice to know about the Yamamori Thai curry although I miss that quick S&B or House stuff at times.

At one time there waas a doctor at Jikei daigaku byuoin who knew about celiac but he left there. I read that in 2005 there were only 27 Japanese diagnosed celiacs. Last March at a seminar at Makuhari on wheat allergies there was considerable concern about the rise of Japanese children and especially babies with wheat allergies.

What do you do in Nagoya? Great city! Visit the Togokuzan fruit park if you havn't already. neat place
Ken

Hi All.

I live in Nagano and am on a gluten free diet too.



Lawson has 3. Sake (Salmon), umeboshi and sea-chicken (tuna).
All the rest tend to have 2, Sake and umeboshi.

Regarding Shoyu, there is a commonly available one available at
more and more supermarkets (here in Nagano anyway)
Look for this -> https://www.iy-net.jp/nsmarket/commoditydet...d=4901011108951
I put it in small bottles and take it with me when I go out...About the only things I eat out are
sushi and indian curry!

If anyone wants information of products they can have, including instant
ones like risotto, curries and stews, my wife (Japanese) has done an awful lot
of research over the past 5 years. There are very few things in our house that
have mugi in them now! The 100% soy-bean beer isn't too bad either!

We gluten-free people should get together sometime and exchange ideas.

Regarding celiac in Japan ,my wife's friend's father who moved to Australia was diagnosed.
Hence, it is in the DNA here too; most likely it is the low amount of gluten in the
diet that prevents an outbreak like in western countries. I see a lot of people around me
that I think should stop eating gluten but no one believes me!

Thanks for the update on Lawsons.
Nagoya is a great city, One of the food companies there San Jurushi (San-J) makes the wehat free shoyu in the US but keeps some in Nagoya. They used to carry it at Nagoya eki matsuzakaya.

I heard they closed Yagoto Mulberry Hotel, do you know if its true?

Ken

Oops I must really be tired, I read Nagoya but you live in Nagano.
Been a long day!
Ken

There was a very interesting article in the "Shinshu Mainichi" newspaper yesterday.
The Shinshu university has carried out test out 700 people that were reported
with intestinal problems. 20 had positive blood tests, and out of the 11 that
agreed to biopsies, 7 were positive for celiac disease.

This has blown the theory that Celiac disease isn't here in Japan.
The article said one man even had his stomach removed! It's said
how the want to be different from western cultures ends on punishing a
society...

Very interesting, do you have a link to the article?
Ken

Yes, very interesting!

Hi :-)

I'm a Japanese ex-pat celiac living in Seattle, so I can't provide you with much local information at this point, but I can tell you this: my mom shops at Natural House（ナチュラルハウス）to find a lot of stuff I can eat.

Here's the location list on their website; depending on how much kanji you can read you might want to get help:
http://www.naturalhouse.co.jp/shops/details.html

They sell lots of natural, organic stuff made without additives and sensitive about allergens, and I think she found some soy sauce-like condiments made with millet, quinoa, etc., as well as cookies made with alternative ingredients to avoid 小麦. When shopping, tell them you have 小麦アレルギー (wheat allergy) & 他の麦も食べられません。(I can't eat barley, etc., either.)

カラメル色素　is caramel coloring, so I'd watch out for that, too, since that's often made with barley in the process.

アミノ酸系調味料　or　調味料　mean "amino acids flavoring" and "flavoring" respectively, and I usually avoid those, because those are euphemistic ways of saying MSG, and often contain glutamic acid. Glutamic acid is most likely safe in the U.S., but in China and Japan there are manufacturers who make them from wheat.

I hope this helps -- good luck!

Aya