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With more and more Japanese sweets and snacks making their way to the West thanks to subscription box services, more international consumers are discovering the wild and colorful world of dagashi. Known for their low prices, colorful wrappings, and unique flavors, dagashi have been a staple of Japanese candy shops and convenience stores for over 100 years.
Dagashi is a broad category that encompasses everything from seasoned fish jerky to puffed corn to chocolate sweets. It can be sweet or savory, either the perfect dessert or a delightful afternoon snack.
Despite their popularity in Japan, especially among children, dagashi were one of the last Japanese snacks to make their way to the West. Unfortunately, for years, Pocky, Pretz, Hello Panda, and more recognizable names have overshadowed them. But any fan of Japanese snacks should give these tasty treats a try!
The Origins of Dagashi
The first known records originate from the Edo period. Due to Japan’s limited trade relationships with other countries, white sugar was a scarce resource. Because of this, some candy makers began producing sweets using corn or starch.
駄菓子 is a combination of 駄 meaning poor quality or low-grade and 菓子 meaning snack. The rarer, more expensive white sugar desserts were called jogashi (上菓子,) with 上 meaning high quality.
Dagashi grew exponentially in popularity during World War II, when further ingredient shortages made cheap snacks increasingly desirable. The 1940s and 1950s saw the rise of dagashiya, shops that specifically sold the treats.
Today, supermarkets and convenience stores across Japan stock dagashi. However, a few pure dagashiya still remain. While many remain as cheap as they always have been, unfortunately, several manufacturers have increased their prices. This is due to a combination of inflation and modern-day children’s higher allowances.
What makes a candy dagashi?
The central element of dagashi is that manufacturers make them to appeal to children, similar to the Western penny candy or pick’n’mix. This includes their colorful wrappers, classic flavors such as ramune or tonkatsu sauce, and low price.
The average candies come in individual pieces or small, single-serving bags. They typically range in price from 10 to 200 yen, although nowadays, slightly more expensive ones do exist. Generally, no dagashi will cost more than 500 yen, as stores want children to purchase them using their coins and spare change.
While dagashi can be either sweet or savory, they are generally designed to have a long shelf life so that stores do not have to restock as frequently. Preserved items like jerkies or pickled vegetables make popular dagashi for this reason, as do dried fruits and puffed corn or rice.
Candy dagashi are typically solid sugar, although some chocolates can be classified as dagashi. (Today, the distinction between dagashi and jogashi is less prevalent, and many, such as konpeito candy, can be made with white sugar due to its increased availability.) [2]
Some also come with small prizes, usually figurines or other toys. Due to choking concerns raised regarding Kinder Eggs in Europe, which used to contain toys inside a chocolate shell, prizes are now found alongside dagashi rather than inside them. Occasionally, purchasing certain types or flavors of dagashi will allow customers to enter raffles with prizes including money, larger toys, game systems, or bulk packages of the dagashi in question.
Finally, many dagashi will change their packaging year-round to themes representing holidays like Halloween, Golden Week, or Christmas. Some manufacturers release seasonal flavors, like strawberry for Valentine’s Day or red bean for New Year’s.
Popular Dagashi: The Sweet
There are hundreds of different types of dagashi available for purchase in Japan. However, a few have become particularly well-known due to their popularity or appearance in media.
The most well-known dagashi internationally are probably Sakuma fruit drops, which famously appeared in the 1988 Studio Ghibli film Grave of the Fireflies. Unfortunately, the manufacturer discontinued Sakuma drops in late 2022 due to rising costs. [3]
Other sweet dagashi include konpeito, star-shaped sugar candies frequently sold at shrines or temples or during festivals. Like Sakuma drops, konpeito gained Western exposure via a Studio Ghibli film. In this case, it’s Spirited Away, where the adorable soot sprites are shown eating and enjoying these candies.
Mini Ramune, another sweet dagashi, consists of ramune-flavored hard candies sold in a miniature plastic ramune bottle. The popularity of these candies led to the manufacture and sale of other drink-themed sweets. These include Coca-Cola-flavored dagashi sold in a miniature can.
The most popular and well-known dagashi chocolate is probably Tirol. This brand sells small, cubical individual chocolates for as low as 10 yen apiece. Tirol chocolates come in a variety of flavors including cookies n’ creme, biscuit, and coffee jelly.
Tirol are a popular Valentine’s Day and White Day gift, especially among children. However, the low price of Tirol chocolates means they are usually gifted as obligation chocolates to friends or coworkers. If you receive a Tirol, it’s highly unlikely that the giver is declaring their romantic feelings for you.
Popular Dagashi: The Savory
Surimi, a type of ground fish paste, is a common ingredient in dagashi due to its relatively long shelf life. One well-known surimi is Big Katsu, which features fish paste shaped and flavored to resemble tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlets). Introduced during the Showa era, you can still Big Katsu in stores today. Many older people in Japan consider it a nostalgic snack.
Other surimi include the squid-flavored Cut Yocchan and the various -San Taro flavors, including Kabayaki-San (eel) and Yakiniku-San (barbecue).
Another well-known savory example is the Umaibo, which means “delicious/flavorful stick.” Umaibo are puffed corn cylinders wrapped and sold individually. Snack fans sometimes compare them to Western Cheetos. Today, umaibo are available in over 30 flavors. Popular flavors include corn potage (a type of thick corn soup), mentaiko (pollack roe), tonkatsu sauce, cheese, and shrimp & mayonnaise. While most Umaibo are salty or spicy, some sweet versions do exist, such as the Sugar Rusk flavor. [4]
Today, more and more international sweet shops and Asian markets sell dagashi. Subscription box services typically feature two or more each month, including a varied mix of both savory and sweet treats.
If you want to try many different types of dagashi, a subscription box such as TokyoTreat is definitely the way to go. (Afilliate link; Unseen Japan earns a commission at no additional cost to you if you make a purchase.) Plus, if you ever visit Japan, make sure to save up your spare change and purchase a few of these yummy treats to try!
What to read next
Japanese Snacks: More Than Just Pocky
Sources
[1] Dagashi Jiten. 駄菓子の歴史. https://dagashijiten.com/history/
[2] Dagashiya Namazu. https://dagashiya-namazu.jpn.org/dagashinenpyo
[3] Asahi News. サクマ式ドロップスの佐久間製菓、2023年1月廃業へ https://smbiz.asahi.com/article/14763780
[4] Dagashiya.com https://dagasiya.com/
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