2026 SEP | A Japanese View from America by Tato Takahama | Pacific Research Institute | Americans Are Eating the Japanese Language — Why Wagyu, Matcha, and Kanpachi Have Become English Words
By Tato Takahama
Pacific Research Institute
September 28, 2026
While reporting on Mutual Trading’s centennial exhibition, I wrote in my previous article about the humble cutting board. But as I walked through the exhibition, I noticed something else.
It was not the food itself.
It was the name of the food.
Wagyu. Matcha. Kanpachi.
All three are Japanese words. Yet in American supermarkets and restaurants, they do not necessarily need to be translated as “Japanese beef,” “green tea powder,” or “greater amberjack.”
Wagyu steak. Matcha latte. Kanpachi sushi.
Japanese words are entering English almost exactly as they are.
There is nothing particularly surprising anymore about Americans eating Japanese food. Sushi, tofu, ramen, miso, and sake have long been part of the American culinary vocabulary.
But put Wagyu, Matcha, and Kanpachi together, and another phenomenon comes into view.
Japanese words are no longer simply names used to explain foreign foods. They are becoming labels that identify products in the American food market.
Take Wagyu.
There is already an understandable English expression: Japanese beef. Yet American restaurants use phrases such as Wagyu steak, Wagyu burger, and American Wagyu. Collins English Dictionary lists Wagyu as an English word and identifies its origin as Japanese.
Why say Wagyu instead of Japanese beef?
Matcha presents an even clearer example.
If you wanted to explain matcha in English, “green tea powder” would do the job. Yet American cafés serve matcha lattes, matcha ice cream, and matcha smoothies.
The Japan External Trade Organization has reported that in the United States, the Japanese names “matcha” and “onigiri” themselves are increasingly being used in English. Matcha has moved beyond Japanese restaurants into non-Japanese cafés, where American businesses are creating their own variations and combinations.
Kanpachi is even more intriguing.
There is an English name for the fish: greater amberjack. Yet in the world of Japanese cuisine, it is often called kanpachi.
The English translation exists. But the Japanese word is retained.
This is not unique to Japan.
English has always absorbed words from other languages. Pizza comes from Italian. Taco comes from Spanish. Yogurt comes from Turkish. Bagel comes from Yiddish. Croissant comes from French. Hummus and falafel come from Arabic. Food is one of the areas in which foreign words most readily enter English.
But foreign words do not all become English in quite the same way.
Words such as pizza and yogurt have become so familiar that most Americans no longer think of them as foreign words.
Words such as sushi and kimchi are different. Americans may know that they come from other languages, but they use them naturally in English sentences.
And now words such as matcha and Wagyu appear to be moving further in that direction.
In 2024, the Oxford English Dictionary added 23 Japanese-derived words, including onigiri, donburi, katsu, okonomiyaki, takoyaki, tonkatsu, and yakiniku. In other words, Japanese food vocabulary was not merely being used in English; some of it was being formally recorded as part of the English language.
So why is this happening?
There is an interesting parallel in Japan.
Consider the name “France Bed.”
The Japanese company did not name itself that way because its beds were made in France. The company adopted the name after launching its first split-bed product in 1956 and formally changed its name to France Bed in 1961.
Whatever the original marketing thinking behind the name, “France” carried associations for many Japanese consumers that went beyond geography: sophistication, style, refinement, culture.
The name itself could add something to the perceived value of a product.
Could something similar be happening with Japanese words in America?
Could the word “Japan” itself be acquiring a certain value?
Precision craftsmanship. Attention to quality. Aesthetic sensibility in food. A sense of healthfulness. And perhaps, simply, a certain sense of style.
Those associations may be adding value to the names of Japanese foods themselves.
That is why it is not necessarily “Japanese beef,” but Wagyu. Not “green tea powder,” but Matcha. Not “greater amberjack,” but Kanpachi.
The decision not to translate the word may itself communicate something Japanese.
Of course, Wagyu and Kanpachi have not become everyday words for all Americans in the way pizza or yogurt have. Kanpachi remains a relatively specialized term, familiar mainly in sushi restaurants, the food trade, and among people deeply interested in food.
Still, something is changing. Food is not the only thing traveling from Japan to America. The names of those foods are traveling with them.
And in some cases, the untranslated Japanese name may communicate something that its English equivalent does not.
That offers a small but revealing clue to the changing cultural relationship between Japan and America.
For decades, Japanese consumers could hear the word “France” and think of sophistication, fashion, cuisine, or refinement. Today, something of the reverse may be taking place in America: Japanese words themselves may be acquiring associations that make them desirable.
Across social media and YouTube, Americans and other Westerners increasingly showcase their fascination with Japanese food and culture. Some of what appears online is undoubtedly exaggerated. But the larger phenomenon is difficult to miss: more people are using words such as Wagyu, Matcha, and Kanpachi exactly as they are, without translating them.
The Japanese boom in America may therefore be about more than Japanese products selling well.
Perhaps the name “Japan” itself is beginning to carry commercial and cultural value.
Americans are eating Japanese food.
And now, they are beginning to eat the Japanese language as well.
The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cultural News.
Note: English translation was prepared by the author. Translation assistance tools may have been used.
2026 SEP | A Japanese View from America | PRI | アメリカ人は日本語を食べている――Wagyu、Matcha、Kanpachiはなぜ英語になったのか