Which do you prefer to put on your fried egg, "soy sauce" or "sauce"? The " brand" is a topic that has been debated over and over again in all ages and cultures, but few people have ever paid attention to the brand of the product.

RECEIPO, a useful shopping information site, surveyed men and women across Japan and asked them "Which brand of sauce do you think of? The survey was conducted to find out the most common reasons for the increase in the number of respondents. The results of the survey, which ranked the popularity of local sauces nationwide, are now available.


Favorite sauce brand, "Bulldog" ranked No. 1 in Japan

No. 1: Bulldog sauce (40.6%)
2nd : Otafuku (28.5%)
No. 3: Kagome (11.9%)
No. 4: Ika Resource (7.0%)
5th: Komi (4.2%)

The brand that received the most votes was Bulldog Sauce, founded in Tokyo in the Meiji era. The logo depicting a bulldog dog with an austere expression is something that all Kanto residents have probably seen before. Whenever I buy sauce, the first thing I pick up is Bulldog Chuno Sauce.


This is followed by Otafuku's sauce, headquartered in Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture. It received nearly 30% of the total votes. Thick "okonomi-yaki sauce" is indispensable when making okonomiyaki at home. This is definitely the sauce I use when I hold an okonomiyaki party.

In third place is "Ketchup is not the only one! Kagome, just like that, ranked in fourth place, followed by Bulldog's subsidiary Squid Resource. And Komi, famous for its "Koikuchi Sauce," came in fifth.

However, with 40% of the total, one would think that Bulldog would be the sole winner.

However, when looking at the results by area, there is a clear difference in preferences.

Although Bulldog is indeed No. 1 in Japan, it turns out that preferences are clearly divided between East and West when examined by prefecture. While bulldogs were the most popular in eastern Japan from Hokkaido to Nagano Prefecture, Otafuku was suddenly favored in western Japan from Shiga Prefecture to Kyushu area.


Komi was also the most popular in Aichi, Gifu, and Mie prefectures. The company's brand is headquartered in Aichi Prefecture. Its representative product, Koikuchi Sauce, was created in pursuit of the taste buds of people in the Chukyo area, who prefer a thicker flavor. No wonder it is loved in the Chubu area.


Furthermore, Kagome is No. 1 in the two Hokuriku prefectures of Fukui and Toyama, and in Shizuoka Prefecture. Ikari, ranked fourth in Japan, was the most popular in some parts of western Japan, including Wakayama, Tokushima, Saga, Miyazaki, and Okinawa prefectures, beating out Otafuku.

In addition, Torii Sauce in Hiroshima Prefecture, Bara Sauce in Hyogo Prefecture, and Hermes Sauce in Osaka Prefecture also received votes. I am ashamed to admit that I, a native of the Kanto region, had never heard of any of them...!

Incidentally, an editorial staff member from Yamaguchi Prefecture said, "It was always squid resource that was available at home tables and set meal restaurants" (a long time ago). They used to eat fried eggs, shredded cabbage, tempura potatoes, and anything else with squid resource on it. It was so familiar to him that he could call it a genre of seasoning rather than a sauce (this is just my personal opinion).


Conclusion

To summarize this survey, Bulldog sauce is the most popular sauce in eastern Japan, Otafuku sauce (or Ika Resource in some areas) in western Japan, and Komi's sauce in the central area. However, when the author asked the opinions of people around her (mainly from western Japan), it seems that many of them change the sauce they use depending on the dish. Opinions also seem to be somewhat divided by generation.

The world of sauces is very deep, and one seasoning can have such regional characteristics! When you think of sauces, what brand is it? Just by asking a person to answer the question, "Where are you from? Ask around!