The humble rice ball, eaten in Japan for thousands of years, is seemingly more popular now than ever, with specialty shops opening in succession and billions sold at convenience stores every year.
Onigiri, usually wrapped in dried seaweed and stuffed with tasty fillings, were once thought of as an easy, at-home snack. However, they are increasingly seen as the perfect grab-and-go meal, and business is booming across Japan and abroad.
On one recent day in early February, a long line of customers formed at an event venue in Tokyo’s Yaesu district—all waiting to get a taste of onigiri made by one woman: Yumiko Ukon.
Ukon, 72, is the proprietress of Bongo, a much sought-after specialty onigiri shop in the capital’s Otsuka district.
She had left her shop for the day to sell rice balls at the Onigiri Summit, an event organized by the Onigiri Society. There, she put fillings, such as sweetened minced meat and egg yolks, into balls of rice and deftly pressed them into shape by hand.
She never pressed the onigiri more than three times.
“That’s because I want to preserve the fluffy texture,” Ukon explained.
The customers watched her press onigiri as they waited in line, some taking videos on their phones.
Chihiro Waki, one of the customers, was all smiles when she received her rice ball from Ukon.
“It has been my dream to eat a Bongo onigiri,” Waki, 24, said excitedly. “It was so fluffy and delicious.”
Bongo was founded by Ukon’s late husband in 1960. At 72, she still works at the eatery she took over from him.
Customers sometimes line up for hours for the onigiri there. The shop also receives a steady stream of young people who dream of opening their own onigiri shops and ask Ukon for training and advice.
Ukon agreed to share her thoughts about her long career.
LIKE MOTHER’S COOKING
When asked why she thinks her outlet is so popular, Ukon replied: “I think people are lonely in the city. Perhaps so many come to Bongo because they are looking for warmth. Some customers even tear up eating our onigiri, saying it reminds them of their mother’s cooking.”
Asked what she focuses on while she works, Ukon said: “I tell myself I have to treat each customer earnestly. I put all my heart into every single rice ball.”
About memorable moments with her customers, she said: “There are so many, but one that has stuck in my mind is of a woman whose husband had terminal cancer. She asked me to make onigiri for him, because he’d said he wanted to eat Bongo’s onigiri one last time. I was so moved, and I told myself I had to stay in this business.”
Ukon also shared her ambitions for the future.
“I went to Naka-Noto two years ago,” she said, where the carbonized remains of a 2,000-year-old onigiri-like rice-lump had been unearthed in that Ishikawa Prefecture town.
“When I visited the excavation site and saw the real thing, I thought, ‘If onigiri has been around for 2,000 years, I have to carry it on so there will still be onigiri 2,000 years down the road. I have to train people who will carry on the tradition,’” she said.
PANDEMIC IMPACT
Onigiri Asakusa Yadoroku in Tokyo’s Taito Ward, which was founded in 1954, is believed to be the oldest existing specialty onigiri outlet in the capital.
Many specialty onigiri shops popped up in Tokyo and other areas shortly after the war, as rice balls became a popular snack to finish off a meal after drinking.
Similar specialty outlets have grown sharply in number since the novel coronavirus pandemic ended.
As of January 2025, 2,162 onigiri outlets were registered on the Tabelog restaurant search and reservation service, up 1.7-fold from 1,301 in the same month of 2020.
Komeda Co., operator of the Komeda’s Coffee cafe chain, opened specialty onigiri outlets in Tokyo and on the outskirts of the capital in February.
Yusuke Nakamura, 49, representative director of the Onigiri Society, which is working to promote onigiri in Japan and abroad, shared his thoughts on the trend.
He explained that many people stopped eating out when the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. The money they saved was instead spent on “modest luxuries,” leading to stronger sales of high-end onigiri in convenience stores.
Nakamura theorized that more people have been patronizing specialty onigiri shops since the pandemic because, if they’re going to splurge anyway, they think it should be for something freshly made by a chef.
STRONG SALES AT CONVENIENCE STORES
Onigiri are also seeing brisk sales at convenience stores.
Seven-Eleven Japan Co., the industry leader, was the first convenience store chain operator in the country to start marketing “roll-your-own” onigiri in 1978. The consumer had to unseal a pack of seaweed and wrap it around the rice ball themselves.
The novelty was the brainchild of Toshifumi Suzuki, honorary adviser to Seven & i Holdings Co., and Seven-Eleven’s president at the time.
“People simply did not imagine in those days that rice balls, which were usually made at home, could be bought at a store,” Suzuki told The Asahi Shimbun in 2023.
“Bread was sold at 7-Eleven outlets in the United States. I thought, if that’s the case, we could do the same thing with rice balls and other dishes that appeal to Japanese tastes,” Suzuki said.
Parikko Film, a wrapping product that kept the seaweed on onigiri crunchy, was also developed around the same time.
When the roll-your-own onigiri first went on sale, only two or three rice balls were bought at each store per day. However, their texture attracted attention, and they gradually caught on with the public.
In 1983, a “Sea Chicken Mayonnaise” (which has since been renamed “Tuna Mayonnaise”) roll-your-own onigiri was released.
The public was surprised by the unlikely combination of onigiri and mayonnaise, but the flavor soon gained popularity and became a fixture at convenience stores across Japan.
“An official with one of our suppliers apparently got the inspiration for the Tuna Mayonnaise when he saw his son pouring mayonnaise on rice,” said Seiichi Aoyama, director and managing executive officer with Seven-Eleven, who has been observing the history of onigiri development.
Aoyama, 66, continued, “The introduction of the Tuna Mayonnaise was a turning point for the increasing consumption of onigiri from convenience stores.”
Seven-Eleven went on to improve its onigiri by pressing the freshly cooked rice while still hot to ensure a fluffy texture. It also introduced a “salt-sprinkling” method for seasoning onigiri at the end of the manufacturing process.
Sales of Seven-Eleven’s onigiri have grown each year to 2.1 billion rice balls in fiscal 2023.
Aoyama said he has fond memories of the time he helped develop the “Salted Rice Ball.”
Members of the development team decided to “go for it just with rice” without using nori or any fillings. Despite misgivings about the product, it ended up being a success.
“The onigiri market is competitive, not just within the convenience store industry but also with specialty outlets,” Aoyama said. “Customers’ tastes change, too, so I think everything boils down to how we can keep developing products that satisfy customers.”
SNACK OF THE FUTURE
Nakamura, of the Onigiri Society, shared his thoughts on the future of onigiri.
“They will evolve from year to year,” he predicted. “I expect this year will see a spread of global flavors (that incorporate dishes from countries around the world, such as seasoned spicy chicken from South Korea), but I think the mentality of the Japanese about onigiri will remain unchanged long into the future.”
Nakamura pointed out that, for Westerners, meals are about sharing “time” with family members and friends, whereas Japanese people share “space” over meals.
“Japanese people tend to sit at the counter to face cooks through the intermediary of food ingredients,” he said. “Onigiri is a food item that symbolizes that attitude.”
He said that onigiri carry the “heart” of those who have made them.
“They want the recipient to do well at sports day or exams (wherever they will eat the onigiri),” Nakamura said. “There is a Japanese mentality in that all. I think, for example, that many of those who stand in a line outside Bongo are doing so because they want to see Yumiko Ukon, the proprietress.”
While the shape and fillings may vary with time, “the heart” of onigiri could be passed down as a treasured element of Japanese culture.
AloJapan.com