Japan Data
Lifestyle
Food and Drink
Oct 31, 2025
Chestnut, sweet potato, and pumpkin are essential autumn ingredients for sweet treats in Japan.
Sweet Potatoes and Yakiimo Firm Favorites
A survey in Japan asked which Western-style sweets respondents wanted to eat this autumn. At 45%, the favorite was Mont Blanc, with its mountain of finely piped chestnut puree and a cream-encased chestnut on a cake base. The other two top choices were Sweet Potato cake—a baked dessert of mashed sweet potato, cream, butter and sugar—at 33.8% and pumpkin pudding, an autumn take on the classic caramel custard pudding, at 23.2%. When it came to popular Japanese sweets, yakiimo sweet potatoes came top with 30.2%, followed in joint second place with 21.6% by dorayaki, bean paste sandwiched between two castella-like pancakes, and its autumn variation kuri dora that includes a whole sweet chestnut in the center of the bean paste, along with kuri kinton, a chestnut and sweet potato mash.
The survey was conducted online in September 2025 by the research company Cross Marketing, targeting people aged 20 to 69. It received 1,100 valid responses in total (550 men and 550 women). All of the questions allowed multiple responses.
When respondents were asked what ingredients made them think of autumn sweets, the top answer was chestnut with 66.0%. Sweet potato (62.7%) and pumpkin (42.6%) were in the top three too.
Respondents were also asked to describe their image of autumn sweets, with the most common responses being that they “evoke a sense of the season” (43.3%), “have a Japanese atmosphere” (37.7%), and make them think of “Halloween” (27.2%).
Data Sources
(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: Japan’s Mont Blanc autumn dessert is named after the European peak. © Pixta.)
autumn
sweets
sweet potatoes
chestnuts
AloJapan.com