Japanese Curry Powder: What’s in It, How It Reached Japan, and How It’s Used

Japan’s thick, mild, slightly sweet curries start with a spice blend that took the long way around, from India by way of Britain in the Meiji era. Japanese curry powder is usually a long list of spices, from about ten to more than thirty depending on the maker, roasted and then aged.¹ It’s the base of curry roux, those blocks of curry powder set with flour and fat. Used on its own, it’s handy in everything from mayonnaise dips to croquettes.

At a glance

What’s in it

There’s no single recipe. Nipponica, the Japanese encyclopedia, says Japanese curry powders combine from about ten to more than thirty ground spices, and the types and amounts are each maker’s secret. It sorts the spices by job: pungency, aroma (cumin, fenugreek, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, bay, mace, coriander, dill, celery seed, allspice, caraway, thyme), masking odors (garlic, cloves, fennel) and color (turmeric, paprika).¹

Here are two published lists, each as its source gives it, next to the U.S. government’s minimum for curry powder in general:

The S&B label lists 17 ingredients.² Just One Cookbook says the main ones in S&B’s red-tin powder are turmeric, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, pepper, chili and orange peel.³ You’ll often read that Japanese curry powder is almost entirely turmeric, coriander, cumin and cardamom, as much as 90% of the blend. No source backs that up, and the makers don’t publish their proportions.¹

Flavor

Japanese curry powder is fragrant, golden and mildly sweet, with a rounded, sweet aroma. ChefShop, which sells the S&B powder, says it tends to be milder and less complex than Indian curry powders.² That’s a retailer’s opinion, and with 17 ingredients on the S&B label, the blend isn’t short on spices. The sweetness and roundness come through most once the powder is cooked into a roux with onions.

History

From India via Britain. Curry powder was adapted by British settlers in India. The Daijisen dictionary says it reached Japan from India by way of Britain in the Meiji era, and Just One Cookbook says curry first came to Japan during the Meiji era (1868–1912) via the British navy.³ Nipponica says the first Western spice introduced to the Japanese, during the Westernizing 1880s, was the British C&B (Crosse & Blackwell) curry powder.¹

The first Japanese curry powder. The Japan Dietetic Association’s profile of S&B Foods says the company’s founder, Minejiro Yamazaki, made Japan’s first domestically produced curry powder in 1923 and founded Hidakaya (日賀志屋), the forerunner of S&B. The same profile says the red-tin curry powder, launched in 1950, spread curry culture across Japan in one stroke.⁵

The sources disagree on when the red tin itself appeared:

We can’t settle the date here.

The counterfeit C&B affair. A compiled history of S&B on The Shashi tells of someone selling curry powder under an imitation C&B mark. A British trading company protested to the authorities, the Tokyo police seized the fakes from wholesalers, and orders for the domestic maker’s own powder poured in. The compilation files the episode under 1935 but gives no date in the text.⁶ We couldn’t confirm the often-quoted year of 1931, or the claim that the scandal proved Japanese powders indistinguishable from British ones.

We couldn’t trace two other common claims: that imported curry was a luxury eaten mainly by the rich, and that roux blocks overtook curry powder in the 1950s.

How it is used

In curry roux. Nipponica describes instant curry as curry powder set with wheat flour, fats, salt, sugar and seasonings into blocks, flakes or granules. Just One Cookbook points out that the powder itself, unlike commercial roux, has no wheat flour, and gives a homemade roux method.³

As a spice. Just One Cookbook suggests:³

• Sautéing it with onions, meat or vegetables when making curry from scratch.
• Mixing it with Japanese mayonnaise for a dip or spread.
• Seasoning meat or vegetables before grilling or roasting.
• Adding it to dressings, soups, stews, stir-fries, marinades or fried rice.
• Stirring it into the flour for breading, or into mashed potatoes for croquettes.

The best-known dish is curry rice (kare raisu).

Technique. America’s Test Kitchen recommends blooming ground spices in fat, which takes anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes.⁷

Buying and storage

• Powder or roux? Check whether the package is curry powder (spices only) or curry roux (spices plus flour and fat). You can’t swap one for the other in a recipe.
• Storage. Just One Cookbook says to keep the powder somewhere cool and dark, away from moisture and humidity, and gives two months, in a cool dark place or the freezer, for its homemade blend.³ We didn’t find a shelf life from a regulator or standards body.

Safety

Wheat in roux. Curry roux contains wheat flour,¹ and the FDA lists wheat among the major food allergens.⁸ Just One Cookbook says the powder alone is flour-free,³ but read the label anyway.

Lead in spices. A ten-year review of spice samples tested by the New York City health department found detectable lead in more than half of them.⁹ The abstract doesn’t break out curry powder separately. See turmeric for the lead-chromate problem in that spice.

Health claims

Curry powder’s spices often get credit for helping cholesterol and digestion. NCCIH, part of the National Institutes of Health, says there isn’t enough evidence to conclude that turmeric or curcumin is beneficial for any health purpose.¹⁰ For fenugreek, NCCIH says some research suggests it may help lower blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, but many of those studies weren’t high quality.¹¹ We’re not making any health claim for the blend. Claims that it supplies meaningful iron, calcium, vitamin C or fiber weren’t supported by any source we reviewed.

Substitutes and comparisons

• Curry powder, the general profile, and cooking with curry powder
• Other styles: Madras, Jamaican, Malaysian and vindaloo curry powders
• Curry paste vs. curry powder and garam masala vs. curry powder
• Is curry powder spicy? and too much curry powder
• Japanese spices
• The spices: turmeric, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, cardamom, cinnamon, star anise, fennel seed