Source: jisho.org, a fantastic online dictionary
As you may or may not know, I'm allergic to gluten (and other things, but those are less pertinent to my life here). Eating gluten free in Japan is...challenging to say the least. If you are like me and sensitive enough that soy sauce is a problem, things will be much, much harder. If you are okay with small amounts of wheat and gluten, Japan's rice based cuisine will be great for you! However as stated previously, that is not the case for me.
Now that the borders are open, tourism to Japan is skyrocketing and I'm sure many of those people are like me and can't eat wheat. Also for all those new JETs getting accepted this week and people looking to apply in fall: your allergies don't have to stop you from coming to Japan, but it will require more planning, especially if you want to go off the beaten path. Tokyo has a collection of gluten free restaurants, but Tokyo isn't for everyone. I'm not a fan of Tokyo (blasphemous, I know) and there are tons of guides for eating gluten free in Tokyo, so I'll teach you how to eat gluten free beyond Tokyo and for those looking to live here.
While allergy labeling is improving and more places are starting to offer allergy labeling in English or pictures, this is not the majority. Because of this, I highly recommend you learn the kanji for wheat (and anything else you are allergic to). Now, you may be saying "but GoogleLens exists! I can just point my camera at the label!" Yes this is definitely a useful feature, but if you don't get the angle quite right or it spontaneously decides to mistranslate, you are out of luck. While this is a good method if you are in a pinch, I highly recommend you just learn the kanji for what you are allergic to. The kanji for wheat is 小麦 (komugi) and I tend to search for that first kanji because it only has three lines and the abundance empty space makes it stand out from other ingredient names. It will also be highlighted in an allergy label or at the end of the ingredient list with all the other allergens. It will take some time at first, but these days I'm even faster than Japanese people at finding wheat in an ingredient list.
For example, here is a package of sweets my neighbor gave me. It has an allergy label! These are new and super helpful to people like me. See that big 小麦 in the allergy label? The other allergies listed are eggs, dairy, almonds, and soy, which are part of the 28 major allergens list in Japan.
Now, not all packages have allergy labels, so you can search the ingredients too. How many 小麦s can you spot?
Here is the same ingredient label run through Google Lens. It did a pretty good job, but I still don't trust it to keep me safe. Answers to how many 小麦s below!
Aaaaaaand the answer is *drum roll*... eight 小麦s!
This is a bag of sandwich cookies, so any gluten free person will immediately know that is a no go for them. However, you can find wheat in even the most unexpected things. You know all those things you were warned about possibly containing wheat that make absolutely no sense? Unfortunately, that is a reality in Japan. For example, here are some hot dogs:
Sorry the quality of this image is kinda bad. Taking photos is actually banned in Japanese grocery stores, so I had to stealthily take this pictures using my American (and therefore silent when taking pictures) phone. This package has pretty good labeling, with both an allergy label and a section of the ingredients for all the allergens. This is the list of ingredients in parenthesis preceded by 一部に. Below the allergy label there is also a "manufactured in the same factory as" statement but I am not that sensitive so I typically do not read that. If you are also not sensitive to same factory production, don't panic if you see 小麦 outside the ingredient label or allergy label.
Here is another hot dog that contains wheat. This package does not have an allergy label, but it does have the allergy list at the end of the ingredient list. However, when looking through the ingredients on both of these I cannot fathom where the wheat is coming from. Generally if an ingredient contains an allergen it has that allergen in parenthesis next to the ingredient, but I guess not always. Probably one of the craziest things I've seen contain wheat is apple slices, because they were sweetened with barley malt sugar. However, nothing happened to me so I guess it was fine? Pickles and sushi can also contain wheat if barley vinegar is used.
In summary, it is important to learn the kanji for what you are allergic and to keep on your toes since very unexpected things can have wheat in them. While you of course do not need to learn any Japanese, personally I think independence from technology is important when it comes to allergies. When I first visited Japan in 2017 they didn't have allergy labels and my phone didn't work without wifi, so I spent a lot of time checking ingredient labels for wheat. Even if you do have a phone that works, there are definitely places in Japan where you can lose cell service and portable wifi tends to run out of battery. When you have something as important as a food allergy, it is good to know as many ways as possible to avoid your allergy. Nobody wants to have an allergic reaction while traveling!
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