- 14 Mar 2002
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Tacos are seeing a surge in popularity in Japan, with more restaurants serving Mexican-style corn tortillas as diners look for relatively affordable meals and chefs take advantage of what they see as a fairly easy business to enter. At Tortilla Club Tortilleria in Tokyo's Shibuya district, customers on a recent afternoon spoke enthusiastically about the food. One man in his 30s said he had come to enjoy tacos while living in California. He said the pork's flavour stood out, and that he liked the tortillas' slight firmness.
His wife said taco restaurants had become noticeably more common in Japan. She added that many people now order tacos for delivery to eat casually at home with friends. The shop was also attracting customers from Central America, where the dish originated. An office worker from El Salvador, who has lived in Japan for five years, said he had not eaten many tacos in Japan before, but the ones served there tasted similar to those back home. The number of taco-focused restaurants has risen sharply in recent years. According to the restaurant review platform Tabelog, Japan had 502 restaurants serving mainly tacos as of 31 March. That is 2.3 times the number recorded three years ago, and seven times higher than a decade earlier.
Tacos also gained ground among home cooks last year, as rising food prices pushed some consumers to seek alternatives to rice-based meals. The price of rice climbed sharply, with 5 kilograms selling for more than ¥4,000 ($25) in some cases. Against that backdrop, tortillas began attracting more attention as a cheaper and more flexible option. Sales of flour tortillas under Topvalu, Aeon's private-label brand, rose roughly 70% in volume in fiscal 2025 compared with the previous year. The tortillas sell for around ¥50 each.
Aeon has been promoting them as an alternative to meals centred on increasingly expensive rice or fish. Searches for tacos have also been increasing on the Japanese recipe video site Kurashiru. The word most commonly associated with "tacos" is "simple," suggesting that convenience and ease of preparation are part of their appeal.
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His wife said taco restaurants had become noticeably more common in Japan. She added that many people now order tacos for delivery to eat casually at home with friends. The shop was also attracting customers from Central America, where the dish originated. An office worker from El Salvador, who has lived in Japan for five years, said he had not eaten many tacos in Japan before, but the ones served there tasted similar to those back home. The number of taco-focused restaurants has risen sharply in recent years. According to the restaurant review platform Tabelog, Japan had 502 restaurants serving mainly tacos as of 31 March. That is 2.3 times the number recorded three years ago, and seven times higher than a decade earlier.
Tacos also gained ground among home cooks last year, as rising food prices pushed some consumers to seek alternatives to rice-based meals. The price of rice climbed sharply, with 5 kilograms selling for more than ¥4,000 ($25) in some cases. Against that backdrop, tortillas began attracting more attention as a cheaper and more flexible option. Sales of flour tortillas under Topvalu, Aeon's private-label brand, rose roughly 70% in volume in fiscal 2025 compared with the previous year. The tortillas sell for around ¥50 each.
Aeon has been promoting them as an alternative to meals centred on increasingly expensive rice or fish. Searches for tacos have also been increasing on the Japanese recipe video site Kurashiru. The word most commonly associated with "tacos" is "simple," suggesting that convenience and ease of preparation are part of their appeal.
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Tacos win hearts and wallets of inflation-squeezed Japanese diners
Taquerias more than double in 3 years, with more opting for Mexican corn tortillas
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