https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/27/japan-onigiri-rice-boom [p] Skip to main contentSkip to navigation Close dialogue1/6Next imagePrevious imageToggle caption Skip to navigation Print subscriptions Newsletters Sign in US[ ] * US edition * UK edition * Australia edition * Europe edition * International edition The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian [ ] * News * Opinion * Sport * Culture * Lifestyle Show moreHide expanded menu * [ ]News + View all News + US news + US elections 2024 + World news + Environment + Ukraine + Soccer + Business + Tech + Science + Newsletters + Wellness * [ ]Opinion + View all Opinion + The Guardian view + Columnists + Letters + Opinion videos + Cartoons * [ ]Sport + View all Sport + Soccer + NFL + Tennis + MLB + MLS + NBA + NHL + F1 + Golf * [ ]Culture + View all Culture + Film + Books + Music + Art & design + TV & radio + Stage + Classical + Games * [ ]Lifestyle + View all Lifestyle + Wellness + Fashion + Food + Recipes + Love & sex + Home & garden + Health & fitness + Family + Travel + Money * Search input [ ] google-search Search + Support us + Print subscriptions * + Search jobs + Digital Archive + Guardian Licensing + About Us + The Guardian app + Video + Podcasts + Pictures + Inside the Guardian + Guardian Weekly + Crosswords + Wordiply + Corrections * Search input [ ] google-search Search + Search jobs + Digital Archive + Guardian Licensing + About Us * World * Europe * US * Americas * Asia * Australia * Middle East * Africa * Inequality * Global development Yumiko Ukon holds a plate with three rice balls [ ] Yumiko Ukon, who runs Onigiri Bongo, a Tokyo eatery specialising in rice balls known as onigiri. Photograph: Richard A Brooks/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Yumiko Ukon, who runs Onigiri Bongo, a Tokyo eatery specialising in rice balls known as onigiri. Photograph: Richard A Brooks/AFP/Getty Images Japan How Japan's humble onigiri took over lunchtimes around the world For decades nori-wrapped rice dish was mainly a snack eaten at home or in a bento, but now it has come into its own Justin McCurry Justin McCurry in Tokyo Fri 27 Sep 2024 07.00 EDTLast modified on Fri 27 Sep 2024 09.33 EDT Share It is barely 10am and the queue outside Onigiri Bongo already stretches around the block. Some of the 30 or so early-bird diners sit on stools, sipping green tea and poring over laminated menus. Further back it is standing-room only. "It's always like this," says Yumiko Ukon, who has run this modest rice ball shop and restaurant in the Otsuka neighbourhood of Tokyo for almost half a century. "But we never run out of rice," she adds, seated in her office near a wall clock in the shape of a rice ball with a bite taken out. Customers wait on chairs outside the shopView image in fullscreen Customers wait their turn outside Onigiri Bongo. Photograph: The Guardian Bongo, opened in 1960 by Ukon's drum-playing husband, sells as many as 1,500 rice balls a day. Its customers are a mixture of loyal locals, inquisitive diners from out of town and, increasingly, a foreign clientele eager to taste the inspiration for the global boom in onigiri - triangles of warm, lightly salted rice embellished with a topping or filling and, more often than not, wrapped in crisp nori seaweed. Onigiri, donburi and one-pot chicken rice: Emiko Davies' everyday Japanese recipes Read more The queues outside Bongo are as legendary as its choice of 57 toppings, from the popular sujiko - salmon roe - and umeboshi plum to the more unconventional bacon and cheese, all accompanied by pickled cucumber and radish and a bowl of miso soup. "The longest anyone has waited is eight hours," says Ukon, 72. "Onigiri are so simple - rice, salt, seaweed and a topping - and anyone can make them. When you bring a smile to someone's face with something as simple as that, it's really special." At lunchtime, the diners waiting for a seat at Bongo's counter include Keita Kimura, who is just minutes away from sampling its koshihikari rice from Ukon's Niigata prefecture, enveloped in nori from the Ariake Sea. "I eat a lot of convenience store onigiri but I've never tried a speciality shop," says the 27-year-old, adding that he has decided to order toppings of tuna and mayonnaise and deep-fried chicken. "The variety is a big attraction, and you can eat them quickly." Two nori-wrapped onigiri in a plastic takeaway containerView image in fullscreen Two nori-wrapped onigiri. Photograph: Wibowo Rusli/Alamy While rice sales in Japan are in decline, shortages notwithstanding, demand for onigiri is rising - a trend industry observers attribute to changing eating habits when the Covid-19 pandemic began, as people started ordering "artisanal" onigiri to take home for dinner. Wrapped triangular or circular rice balls have long been a staple of Japan's ubiquitous convenience stores, where they are snapped up by office workers looking for something cheap and filling to tide them over until the evening. Those stores, too, are riding the onigiri wave with new varieties and, at the FamilyMart chain, high-end versions made in collaboration with well-known restaurants feature fillings such as meuniere-style salmon and line-caught bluefin tuna with smoked pickled radish. The major konbini chain 7-Eleven, which started selling onigiri soon after it opened its first store in 1974, sold more than 2bn rice balls in the year ending April 2023, according to the Toyo Keizai online business magazine. A customer chooses onigiri from a counterView image in fullscreen A customer buys onigiri at Omusubi Gonbei, a shop in New York's Manhattan borough. Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images Now the humble dish is making its mark overseas, in Britain, Germany, Australia, the US and parts of Asia - a trend reflected in Japanese rice exports, which rose from 4,516 tonnes in 2014 to 28,928 tonnes in 2022, according to the agriculture ministry. Mika Kazato, who runs the Japanese cafe Parami in Sydney's Surry Hills, has been blown away by Australians' enthusiasm for the dish. "I didn't expect it," she says. Mika Kazato at the cafeView image in fullscreen Mika Kazato at Parami in Sydney. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian In 2022 her team started making just 50 onigiri each day but they now make up to 500, as customers flock to try the rice balls to accompany cups of coffee or matcha. "It's really yum, it's like the perfect little amount for a snack," says one customer, George. But it is the French who have arguably done most to propel onigiri into the same culinary space as sushi and Japan's other soul food, ramen. Paris is home to than 50 onigiri shops, rice balls are sold in many supermarkets and, this summer, the French judoka Luka Mkheidze credited them with giving him and his teammates that little extra required to win medals at the Paris Olympics. "Onigiri are like fuel for the body," he told the Asahi Shimbun, three years after he tried his first onigiri at the postponed Tokyo Games. "They give me energy so I can perform properly throughout the day." 'A really flexible dish' In the Tokyo neighbourhood of Asakusa, Anastasia and Rame Bouslimi are among a glut of lunchtime customers outside Onigiri Yadoroku, the city's oldest rice ball shop and, in 2018, the recipient of a Michelin Bib Gourmand rating, awarded to restaurants that serve inexpensive meals. Rise and shine: nine quick and easy breakfasts - from on-the-go onigiri to deluxe pilchards on toast Read more The couple have eaten onigiri in their native Germany but are eager to sample an early lunch at Yadoroku, which opened in 1954. "The onigiri in Japan are far, far better," Anastasia says. "They're cheap and good for you ... like a healthy sandwich." Her husband says onigiri were the obvious choice for a late breakfast on their first full day in Japan. "When you think of Germany you think of bread, when you think of Japan you think of onigiri. When we were considering what to eat, onigiri was the first thing that came to mind." The Japanese are thought to have been snacking on something resembling an onigiri - often referred to as omusubi in some parts of the country - since at least the early 11th century. They appear in Murasaki Shikibu's Heian period (794-1185) novel The Tale of Genji, and in the Hayao Miyazaki anime masterpiece Spirited Away, as well as in Utagawa Hiroshige's 1830s ukiyo-e prints The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido and Akira Kurosawa's classic 1954 film Seven Samurai. Onigiri is for sale at a Japanese 7-Eleven convenience storeView image in fullscreen Rice balls for sale at a Japanese 7-Eleven convenience store. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images When Ukon's late husband opened Bongo there were very few specialist shops and Japan's first convenience store would not open for about another 10 years. For decades onigiri were considered a snack to be made and eaten at home, or as part of a bento for school sports days, picnics and long train journeys. Yusuke Nakamura's love of rice balls started as a young child. "I didn't have much of an appetite so my mother would make onigiri, put them down and tell me it didn't matter if I ate them or not," says Nakamura, the chair of the Onigiri Society, which organised the first onigiri summit this year and hopes the dish will feature prominently at next year's World Expo in Osaka. "But, somehow, I always ate them and grew to love them." Nakamura, whose organisation works with businesses to promote onigiri domestically and internationally, expects the dish to adapt as it continues to attract fans beyond Japan's shores. "It's really flexible," he says. "As long as it contains rice and a filling and can be eaten with one hand, you can call it an onigiri." There is, though, one non-negotiable rule, he says. "Whatever you do, do not sprinkle them with soy sauce." Additional reporting by Luca Ittimani Explore more on these topics * Japan * Japanese food and drink * Food * Asia Pacific * Rice * Sydney * France * features Share Reuse this content Most viewed Most viewed * World * Europe * US * Americas * Asia * Australia * Middle East * Africa * Inequality * Global development * News * Opinion * Sport * Culture * Lifestyle Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning Sign up for our email * About us * Help * Complaints & corrections * SecureDrop * Work for us * * Privacy policy * Cookie policy * Terms & conditions * Contact us * All topics * All writers * Digital newspaper archive * Tax strategy * Facebook * YouTube * Instagram * LinkedIn * X * Newsletters * Advertise with us * Guardian Labs * Search jobs Back to top (c) 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (dcr)