Japanese Food Suppliers in South Korea: Sourcing Guide for Restaurants (2026)

South Korea is Japan's fifth largest market for farm, fishery and food exports, and the supply chain behind Japanese restaurants there is run by Korean companies rather than branches of the Japanese importers found in North America. A nationwide food-service chain carries the dry goods, frozen items and sauces, a few specialist importers handle katsuobushi, miso and wasabi, one Seoul company carries most of the sake, and the fish comes through the Noryangjin wholesale market and through live and chilled imports from Japan. Three agencies sit behind every delivery: the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) registers importers and overseas factories, inspects every lot and runs the measures on Japanese food that date from 2013; the Korea Customs Service collects duty and liquor tax at the border; and the tax office issues the liquor sales licence an importer needs before a bottle of sake can be sold. This guide covers the suppliers Japanese restaurants in Korea can buy from, the rules behind each category, what Japan actually ships to Korea, the items that stay hard to source, and the shops worth knowing for small kitchens.

Washoku Agent works with Japanese restaurants across 26 countries on chef recruitment and operations. The information below is compiled from the suppliers' own websites and official sources, checked on 2026-10-28; confirm current pricing, minimum orders and delivery areas directly with each supplier, and check regulations with the authority named.

Notable Japanese food suppliers and distributors in South Korea

The suppliers below were selected because Japanese restaurants in Korea can buy from them, and each company's website was opened on the date shown. The list looks different from the US, Canadian or British lists: none of the large Japanese importers has a Korean branch, so the trade runs through a Korean food-service chain built around Japanese-style menus, a few specialist importers, one sake house, and the fish market. Korean names are given so the companies can be found on Korean map and search services. For a neutral list of outlets that use Japanese ingredients, JETRO's Japanese Food Supporter Store programme is searchable by country, but Korea had only one certified outlet in September 2026.

Hard-to-source items, and practical workarounds

Japanese ingredients in highest demand in South Korea

The trade figures show what Korea buys from Japan. Exports of farm, forestry, fishery and food products to Korea reached JPY 109.4 billion in 2025, up 20.0 percent, making Korea Japan's fifth largest market with 6.8 percent of the total, and more than double the JPY 50.1 billion of 2015. Agricultural products were JPY 68.9 billion, of which processed food was JPY 46.2 billion (42.3 percent of the total), forestry products JPY 4.0 billion and fishery products JPY 36.5 billion (33.3 percent). The ten largest items were alcoholic beverages (JPY 19.4 billion), yellowtail (JPY 11.9 billion), scallops (JPY 8.6 billion), sauces and mixed seasonings (JPY 6.6 billion), sea bream (JPY 5.7 billion), pet food (JPY 3.7 billion), confectionery excluding rice crackers (JPY 2.6 billion), instant coffee (JPY 2.3 billion), logs (JPY 1.9 billion) and sardines (JPY 1.8 billion) (MAFF, 2025 export results by country). Alcoholic beverages have been the largest item in nine of the last eleven years, and yellowtail rose from fourth place in 2024 to second in 2025. The supplier lists point the same way: sake, live and chilled fish for the counter, and the seasoning base.

Japanese supermarkets and specialty grocers

Small outlets in Korea buy from the same food-service stores as large ones, because the Japanese-ingredient trade is organised around restaurant owners rather than home cooks. The places below were verified through their own sites; Monomart stores sell to businesses at trade prices, the Noryangjin market sells retail around the clock, and the online shop sells at consumer prices. No independent Japanese grocer in Seoul or Busan with its own official page could be verified for this guide.

Import rules you need to know

How to choose a Japanese food supplier in South Korea

• Decide who imports. If a Korean importer brings the product in, the MFDS business registration, the overseas factory registration and the import declaration sit with them; a restaurant that imports itself takes on all three, and for alcohol the liquor sales licence as well. (MFDS, Imported Food Safety Management (English), checked October 2026)
• Ask for the prefecture of origin and the certificate on every Japanese seafood order. Nothing from the eight suspended prefectures can enter, eight other prefectures need a government radioactivity certificate, and the rest need a certificate of origin; live fish also needs NFQS quarantine. (JETRO, exporting fishery products to Korea, June 2024)
• Run two seafood accounts: a Noryangjin wholesaler for Korean farmed fish and shellfish, and an importer for the Japanese yellowtail, sea bream and scallops that Japan ships to Korea in volume. Ask each for its cut-off times; the live fish auction at Noryangjin starts at 03:00. (Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market; MAFF, 2025 export results by country, October 2026)
• Price sake with the full stack: duty of 15 percent (falling under RCEP), liquor tax of 30 percent on the customs value plus duty, education tax of 10 percent of the liquor tax, and 10 percent VAT on the total. The liquor tax is paid to the customs office by the importer at the time of import. (Liquor Tax Act, Articles 21, 22 and 25 (English translation); JETRO, exporting alcoholic beverages to Korea, December 2018 translation; August 2025)
• Ask the brewery who its Korean importer is before you ask around. Dassai, for example, publishes its restaurant distributors by country and names Nihonshu Korea for Korea; a brewery with no Korean distributor on its list is a bottle that nobody has registered yet. (Dassai Inc., Distributors for restaurants, checked October 2026)
• Do not rely on the JETRO Supporter Store list as a map of Korea. The country had one certified outlet on the September 2026 list, against 1,686 in Australia and 519 in Hong Kong, so demand for Japanese ingredients in Korea is better read from the trade figures than from the programme. (JETRO, Japanese Food and Ingredient Supporter Stores, September 2026)

The bigger picture

Korea is a large market with a short supplier list: Japan's food exports to the country rose 20.0 percent in 2025 to JPY 109.4 billion, yet there is no Japanese importer with a Korean branch, one JETRO certified outlet, and a set of import measures on Japanese food that has been in place since 2013. The constraint for a new restaurant is rarely demand or distance. It is origin paperwork: which prefecture the fish came from, whether the maker is registered with the MFDS, which bottles the importer has already cleared, and the fact that wagyu is off the table. That depends on a chef who can specify Hokkaido or Kyushu fish with the right certificate, build the counter on Korean farmed fish from Noryangjin when the air shipment does not land, and write a menu that works within the rules.

Frequently asked questions

Planning a new Japanese menu? A Japanese chef can help from Japan by video: dishes that fit your kitchen, recipes, and local ingredients that can stand in for hard-to-find ones. See how a project works.