Japanese Izakaya Etiquette You Need To Know

For a place to catch up with friends and family alongside locals, there's no place quite like Japanese izakaya. Discover colleagues blowing off steam over a crisp bottle of beer, friends sharing delicious dishes and fellow travelers looking to make new friends.

But can you really make new friends if you're scaring off the people around you by breaking every rule of dining in izakaya? Follow these izakaya dining etiquette tips and you'll fit right in.

An izakaya is essentially a pub or bar that focuses on drinks and dishes best enjoyed shared. Though they used to mostly be enjoyed by tired employees in need of a quick drink of sake or beer, their culinary prowess grew to include a variety of seasonal and deep-fried foods, popular with people of all ages.

Join Shizuka and Toni as they visit two izakaya restaurants and go over some of the key phrases, useful tips, and unwritten dos and don'ts for dining like a local. Did you know about all these rules, or were any of them surprising to you?

If the seating area is elevated and features a horigotatsu (a low table with a space below for your legs), as may be the case at more traditional izakaya, you’re likely expected to take off your shoes. There may be a gap just under where you would step up — this is where your shoes can be stored.

It’s a good idea to have shoes you can slip on and off with ease while traveling in Japan, making these situations feel like less hassle. And fingers crossed you’re wearing a pair of matching socks without holes in!

Pro tip: Place your shoes with the front of the shoe facing outwards. Not only is this what Japanese people do, but it makes the process of putting your shoes back on a little smoother.

At any izakaya with a seating charge — which is most of them — you’ll usually be served an otoshi. This is a small appetizer given as a thank you for choosing their izakaya, and as a way of giving you something to enjoy for the cost of entering (often around ¥300).

These otoshi vary by izakaya and season, but you can expect tsukemono pickled vegetables, small chunks of meat and various other dishes to whet your appetite before the main event.

Before beginning a meal in Japan, whether at home or out at an izakaya, it is polite Japanese culture to thank the people or environment around you for the meal you’re about to enjoy. 

Itadakimasu roughly translates to “thank you for this meal,” and carries with it a sense of gratitude to those who prepared the meal and to the world around us for providing the ingredients.

So, hold your hands together before taking a single bite and repeat after us: Itadakimasu!

Don’t feel afraid to translate the izakaya menu with Google Translate!

Many izakaya will use a stylized font for their menu, or even write them by hand. As a result, they can be quite difficult to understand even for native Japanese speakers.

If you’ve only just started your journey with the Japanese language, feel free to embrace the wonders of technology and translate the menu with ease using a translation tool.

If you order a big bottle of beer to the table, don’t feel like you need to chug it down by yourself. It will often be served with small glasses — one per person — with the expectation that each person will be poured a glass of beer.

This ties into Japanese culture of considering those around you, with colleagues and friends pouring each other drinks when their glass runs dry.

Japan is still a very cash-based society, and this certainly extends to its more traditional izakaya. Many of these will only accept cash or, if they do accept cashless payments, may only accept Japanese forms of cashless payment like PayPay or IC travel cards.

On the flipside, however, is that more modern izakaya are attempting to become cashless, so you’ll still want some form of card or digital form of payment with you, just in case.

The oshibori, or heated towel, that many establishments will give you once you’re sat down is ideally meant for cleaning your hands. Even in the summer, it may be seen as somewhat uncouth to wipe your face and neck with this towel.

You may see Japanese businessmen wiping their foreheads during especially humid summer days, but if you want to be up there with the most polite of izakaya diners, we’d recommend avoiding this.

Unlike fancier restaurants where a team member will likely return after a few minutes to take your order, more casual places expect you to call the staff over when you’re ready.

For this, you’ll have to get used to shouting “sumimasen!” over the din of the diners, meaning “excuse me!” But don’t worry, it’s not seen as rude — you’ll soon hear a responding “hai!” meaning that someone is on the way.

Before you come to Japan, you may want to practice your chopsticks skills at a Japanese food place closer to home. We’d recommend this so that you’re not even remotely tempted to stab your chopsticks into food you’re struggling to pick up.

So, why is this so taboo? Well, placing chopsticks upright in food is associated with Japanese funerals. During a Japanese funeral service, chopsticks are placed vertically into a bowl of rice as an offering to the deceased.

If you do this in an izakaya, it could be seen as disrespectful and is thought to bring bad luck.

This one is also associated with Japanese funeral services, and is perhaps even more shocking than vertical chopsticks. Avoid passing food between chopsticks as this resembles a custom held at Japanese funerals; cremated bones are passed from family member to family member before being placed in an urn.

You could see why passing some chicken between friends in the same way may come off as disrespectful to Japanese culture, right?

Although the service in Japan is often stellar, it comes from a sense of Japan’s beloved omotenashi (hospitality), rather than a method of trying to get a bigger tip.

In fact, if you try to leave a tip in Japan you’re likely to be chased down the street by the staff as they try to return your money. To save everyone the hassle, just pay what’s on your bill and leave with a smile on your face.

Now that you know all the dining tips for izakaya, start exploring the best izakaya in Tokyo, Kyoto, or Tokyo’s yokocho bar alleys (Golden Gai and Arakicho). 

Alternatively, take a look at common izakaya food and drinks before brushing up on a bit more Japanese for dining out.