A 3.8785 Trillion Yen Land of Sweets | Japanese-Style Sweets Move Outward

Japan is a country where people eat a lot of sweets. Looking at the numbers makes the scale clear.

The domestic market is 3 trillion 878.5 billion yen

According to figures compiled by the All Japan Confectionery Association, the retail value of confectionery in 2024 was 3 trillion 878.5 billion yen. This was a 5.3% increase from the previous year. The growth is said to have been driven by candy products such as gummies.

The figure does include the impact of rising prices, but it is still clear that the market has not shrunk. Sweets are luxury items, yet they are not easily removed from everyday shopping. This sense of stability is not often found in other categories.

Wagashi becomes sweets

Another movement is overseas expansion. JETRO has reported cases of companies trying to develop overseas markets with “warabi mochi as sweets.”

What is happening here is not simply export, but the translation of a category That is the point. If warabi mochi is sold as a “wagashi” Japanese sweet, only people who understand that context will reach for it. If it is placed on the shelf as a “dessert,” it is compared with puddings and mousses, and the market itself changes. In other words, even the same product reaches different people depending on which shelf it is placed on.

What Is Giving It a Boost

As background factors, there is the spread of awareness through inbound tourism, and the penetration of Japanese culture through anime and manga. Before the taste is even explained, people all over the world already know the name. For exports, this becomes a very important precondition.

A domestic market worth more than 3 trillion yen is, from another angle, also a tough training ground. Products that have continued to be chosen there then go out into the world. As an order of things, that probably makes sense.

For more on the spread of Japanese food overseas, see this article.

References: Japan Confectionery Association, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)

—The Value Village Editorial Team