Explore Our Picks: Top 5 Japanese Chips to Try

Jan 23, 2025by Bokksu Staff

By definition, chips are crispy and bite-sized baked or fried snack foods. While many people still make these snacks at home, the majority of chip consumers in the world prefer to buy chips from multinational brands.

Japan happens to be one of the leading consumers of these crunchy delights and is home to a lot of these companies. In fact, some of the most popular chips in the world are made for the Japanese market. You'll struggle to find the same variety of innovative flavors elsewhere. In this post, we’ll explore the top 5 Japanese chips, their most loved varieties, and where to find them in the United States.

Calbee: Leading with Innovative Flavors

Calbee is arguably the biggest maker of chip snacks in Japan. The company is most famous for its flagship product, Kappa Ebisen, which is a shrimp chip brand enjoyed by snack lovers worldwide. Headquartered in Tokyo, Calbee manufactures and distributes a wide variety of food products both home and abroad. These products include potato chips, shrimp chips, potato fries, and cereals. You can find them in Japan, the United States, China, Thailand, South Korea, Australia, and several other countries. Calbee chips are especially popular for their unique flavors, which often incorporate traditional Japanese ingredients.

Sale

Calbee Potato Chips: Seaweed & Salt (Mega Size)

With a flavor this good, it's no wonder the character on the bag is wearing a celebratory sash! These Calbee Potato Chips have a yummy seaweed & salt taste. With each bite, expect an umami flavor that will have you wanting more. These chips are great ontop of seafood soup!

Bonus - This mega-size bag is perfect for sharing!

Common Allergens: Fish, Wheat, Soy.

40% OFF

7 oz

Calbee Chips Product Line and Flavor Innovations

The most popular Calbee chip brands are Kappa Ebisen (shrimp chips), Calbee Potato Chips (traditional chips), JagaRico (stick-shaped chips), and Jagabee (potato crisps). The majority of the flavors used in all of them feature the signature Calbee Japanese tastes and ingredients. Let’s take a look at some of Calbee’s most famous flavor innovations:

Calbee Potato Chips (Seaweed & Salt): These simple, yet irresistible potato chips bring the taste of umami and seafood to mouths around the world.
Calbee Kappa Ebisen (Hot Garlic): Also known as Calbee Hot Garlic “Shrimp Chips” in the United States, this is one of Kappa Ebisen’s most popular flavors. It features the snappy zing of lightly salted shrimps seasoned with garlic and red pepper.
Calbee Kappa Ebisen (Wasabi): This product brings the tanginess and spiciness of real wasabi, a popular Japanese condiment, to shrimp crisps.
Calbee Jagarico (Original): The potato sticks brand gained instant fame when it first came out in the 1990s. The original flavor is still one of its most popular versions today. It offers a savory blend of potatoes, carrots, and parsley.

Calbee Jagabee (Ketchup): No need to dip these crispy potato snacks in ketchup. Calbee already graced them with the tangy flavoring.

Koikeya: Masters of Flavor

Koikeya is Calbee’s biggest competitor in Japan. The company manufactures various snack food brands, including the famous Karamucho potato chips or sticks and the Scorn corn snacks. These brands are currently owned by a joint venture of Koikeya and Nissin Foods. Koikeya started off as a rice cracker producer in the mid-20th century but ventured into making chips after their founder tasted his first bite of potato chips and loved it! The company became the first Japanese business to mass-produce potato chips in 1967. Today, people all over the world love the brand for the quality of its chips and its ability to create flavors that are impossible to find elsewhere.

Sale

Koikeya Potato Chips: Salt & Seaweed

In 1967 Koikeya became the first mass-produced potato chip company in Japan. Today, it continues to take pride in making authentic Japanese flavored potato chips - like salt and nori! This lightly seasoned snack is great on its own, but we recommend trying it with your favorite dips!

Common Allergens: Tree Nuts.

40% OFF

1.9 oz

Popular Koikeya Flavors from Japan

The company has a knack for capturing traditional Japanese tastes in their chips. The following are unique fan favorites:

Karamucho Potato Sticks (Spicy Hot Chili): Karamucho is always a hearty treat, whether in the form of potato chips or sticks. This product comes with potato sticks heavily seasoned with chili powder.
Koikeya Potato Chips (Salt & Seaweed): When it comes to Japanese flavors, few tastes are as authentic as seaweed and salt. Koikeya perfectly embodies the taste of seafood in this delicious umami-rich treat.

Sale

Koikeya Potato Chips: Salt & Seaweed

In 1967 Koikeya became the first mass-produced potato chip company in Japan. Today, it continues to take pride in making authentic Japanese flavored potato chips - like salt and nori! This lightly seasoned snack is great on its own, but we recommend trying it with your favorite dips!

Common Allergens: Tree Nuts.

40% OFF

1.9 oz

Karamucho Potato Chips (Hot Chili): These fiery Karamucho chips pack an extra kick in comparison to similar Koikeya flavors.
Koikeya Potato Sticks (Norishio Seaweed): You may struggle to tell if these are french fries or potato chips, but their salty umami flavor is undeniable.

YBC Chips: Unique Textures and Tastes

YBC is a popular Japanese confectionery that sells biscuits, crackers, potato chips, and other kinds of snacks. They were responsible for creating the first molded potato chip product in Japan, Chip Star, a brand that’s still highly relevant today. A lot of Japanese people prefer Chip Star to other potato chip brands because it uses relatively less oil and offers near-endless variety. Its use of chips made by molding dried potatoes gives it a unique crispy texture, which is another selling point for the brand.

A package of YBC chop star cheddar cheese potato chips

Most Popular Chip Star Flavors

Nearly all of Chip Star’s best-sellers were crafted to replicate tastes from traditional Japanese cuisine. We’ve curated a list of some of these innovative treats:

Chip Star (Teriyaki Burger): The term teriyaki refers to a Japanese grilling and glazing method. This product has the taste of burger patties and a special mayonnaise sauce used in teriyaki dishes and is similar in consistency to barbecue sauce.
Chip Star Potato Chips (Kishu Plum): This tube of potato chips features snacks flavored with umami-packed Kishu plum and bonito flakes.
Chip Star Potato Chips (Hokkaido Butter): It contains creamy butter, sourced from the dairy capital of Japan, Hokkaido.

Pringles: Japan’s Exclusive Tastes

Pringles is a brand of potato-based chips famous for its stackable design and unique recipes. Owned by American food company Kellogg's, Pringles is sold in more than 140 countries, including Japan. Unlike traditional chip brands, Pringles are not made from real potatoes. They use a type of dehydrated processed potato that gives the chips a unique and crunchy texture.

Pringles Japanese Offerings

Pringles has tailored its offerings to the Japanese market with local flavors. These variations include the following:

Pringles Umashio: Developed to match the Japanese taste for umami while maintaining the texture and flavor profile of the classic Original Pringles.
Pringles Takoyaki: Inspired by the Japanese octopus dish, this product is exclusive to the Kansai region.

Pringles Takoyaki- limited edition products

Pringles Sakura: Customers in Japan can enjoy potato chips flavored with cherry blossoms in the spring.

Lay's: Fusion Flavors in Japan

Lay’s is another American chips brand with a strong presence in Japan. Owned by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, Lay’s chips are considered the most popular potato chips in the world. Since Lay’s chips were first sold in 1932, they are older than most of the other chips in Japan.

Popular Japanese Lay’s Flavors

The brand has created several flavors inspired by Japanese cuisine. These treats are sometimes sold in other countries because they appeal to a wide range of audiences. Check out some popular releases.

Lay’s (Nori Seaweed): This Lay’s product has nori seaweed dusted onto its crispy chips. It offers all of the umami richness of real nori.

Lay's Potato Chips: Nori Seaweed

Crispy, delicious, and umami-rich, you can't go wrong with these nori seaweed Lay's Potato Chips! Crafted with real potatoes, each bite delivers a sensational roasted seaweed taste. These chips are delightful when used as a coating for baked fish filets.

Common Allergens: Fish, Soy.

1.76 oz

Lay’s (Teriyaki Salmon): Graced by the savory taste of grilled seafood and teriyaki sauce, this rare Pringles is especially famous in the Philippines and Thailand.
Lay’s (Teriyaki Chicken): It fuses yakitori-style grilled chicken and teriyaki glaze for that authentic Japanese taste.

Flavor Innovation: Why Japanese Chips Stand Out

Japanese chips are much different from global offerings you may be used to, such as Herr's chips and utz potato chips. They tend to contain the taste of traditional condiments like teriyaki sauce and chili spices or seafood such as shrimp and nori. They also have a more complex flavor profile. Many people who have tried chips from Japan claim they are way more exciting than Western chips, which contain basic ingredients like sour cream, avocado oil, or corn oil.

Fan Favorites: Japan’s Top Chip Choices

We reached out to snack consumers in Japan and asked them about their favorite Japanese chips. Using the results of that survey, we’ve curated a list of the most loved chip varieties in Japan:

Calbee Shrimp Chips: Hot Garlic
Calbee Shrimp Chips: Yuzu Pepper
Koikeya Potato Sticks: Norishio Seaweed
Calbee Jagarico: Original
Pringles: Umashio
Lay’s: Teriyaki Chicken
Chip Star Potato Chips: Hokkaido Butter

Cultural Reflections: Chips as a Mirror of Japanese Cuisine

Japan is made up of a group of islands, and the country boasts an abundance of seafood. Hence, seafood ingredients can be found in a lot of indigenous dishes. The country considers snacks to be just as important as any other meal, so chip manufacturers go all out when flavoring their products. This way, chip flavors in Japan reflect broader culinary trends and preferences.

Nutritional Insights: Snacking Smart with Japanese Chips

Fried or baked chips are not considered healthy snacks. Hence, you should enjoy them with moderation. Japanese chips, however, tend to contain less fat, fewer calories, more fiber, less sugar, and less sodium. This means that they’re slightly healthier than chips made for the western market. Some of the brands we mentioned in this post also have healthy options, such as Baked Lay’s, which contains fewer calories and less fat than regular Lay’s. Another famous option is the Utz Potato Chips (no added salt).

Tasting Guide: How to Savor Japanese Chips

There are many ways to enjoy Japanese chips to the fullest. You can pair them with beverages like sake, beer, gin, and wine. You can also crush the chips and use them as toppings for salads, desserts, and even noodles. Be sure to use chips that complement the flavors of the food. Do a taste test with as many flavors as you like to figure out what you love.

Where to Find Japanese Chips

To find and purchase top Japanese chips on Bokksu Market, head over to our chips section and filter by “Japanese” cuisine. You will get access to a wide variety of chips from the top brands we discussed in this post.