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Traveling to Japan with food allergies, celiac disease, or halal/vegan needs? Tabemasen generates a polite, natural-sounding Japanese card you show to restaurant staff on your phone. It covers the things that catch travelers out - wheat in soy sauce, pork in dashi stock, mirin in glazes - and asks about cross-contamination in proper Japanese. Free, no signup, works offline once generated.
Hey PH!
I built tabemasen after watching a friend with food allergies struggle to eat safely in Japan.
A lot of people don’t realize that while Japan has some of the strictest packaged food allergen laws in the world, none of that actually applies to restaurants. There’s no legal requirement for menu disclosure. So you’re stuck trying to explain to a waiter that yes, soy sauce contains wheat, using Google Translate, which usually spits out technically correct but socially awkward Japanese that staff can't parse quickly.
tabemasen just generates a simple card in natural, polite Japanese. It lists your specific allergens by their kanji names, explicitly mentions cross-contamination (a concept a lot of restaurant staff haven't encountered), and covers the hidden stuff like wheat in soy sauce, pork in dashi, or mirin in glazes. It works for allergies, celiac/gluten-free, vegan, and halal.
I just got back from a month in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, and the cross-contamination issue is incredibly real. I literally watched tempura being fried alongside everything else at a sushi-train spot in Kyoto with zero signage.
The tool is completely free, no signup, no email capture. Just pick your restrictions and save the card to your phone.
Next up on the roadmap is expanding this to support other languages with the exact same deep attention to local culinary nuances and hidden ingredients.
If you speak Japanese, I'd love your feedback on the phrasing. Also open to any suggestions on extra allergens to add or hidden ingredients I might have missed! Happy to answer any questions about eating with restrictions over there.
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About tabemasen on Product Hunt
“Show your waiter what you can't eat in Japanese”
tabemasen was submitted on Product Hunt and earned 7 upvotes and 1 comments, placing #77 on the daily leaderboard. Traveling to Japan with food allergies, celiac disease, or halal/vegan needs? Tabemasen generates a polite, natural-sounding Japanese card you show to restaurant staff on your phone. It covers the things that catch travelers out - wheat in soy sauce, pork in dashi stock, mirin in glazes - and asks about cross-contamination in proper Japanese. Free, no signup, works offline once generated.
tabemasen was featured in Open Source (68.5k followers), Travel (42.3k followers), GitHub (41.3k followers) and Health (6.6k followers) on Product Hunt. Together, these topics include over 52.9k products, making this a competitive space to launch in.
Who hunted tabemasen?
tabemasen was hunted by Nik Mamonov. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
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Nik Mamonov