This is said to be one of the best-known Western-style dishes originating in Japan. It is generally known as “Napolitan”. It’s a type of pasta dish where cooked spaghetti is stir-fried with ingredients such as onions, bell peppers, and bacon (or wieners), then seasoned with tomato ketchup. Though there are many other pasta dishes made with tomato sauce, what sets this “Napolitan” apart is that it uses long pasta and is seasoned with tomato ketchup. Another significant feature is that, when eating it, you can add tomato ketchup to taste or top it with Tabasco sauce or grated cheese. It is one of the pasta dishes widely enjoyed by us Japanese, and being a staple on the menus of casual dining spots, cafes, and restaurants, as well as a dish that has become firmly established as a home-cooked meal.

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There are various theories about the original store where “Napolitan” originated… However, it seems certain that it was devised around the time of World War II, when tomato ketchup began to become widely available to the general public. Of course, it was after the war that they started being served at places like casual dining spots and coffee shops. It seems that in the 1950s, as the volume of wheat imported from overseas increased significantly and domestically produced spaghetti became commercially available, this dish became a Western-style menu known throughout the country. In the 1990s in Japan, Italian cuisine became a huge craze. Until then, when Japanese people thought of spaghetti dishes, the only ones generally known were Napolitan, meat sauce, and carbonara. As a wide variety of other pasta dishes became more widely known, the popularity of “Napolitan” declined slightly. However, its enduring popularity across a wide range of age groups has remained largely unchanged, and in recent years, in particular, it has been gaining renewed attention, partly due to the retro trend. It’s one of the Western-style dishes that originated in Japan, and we hope visitors from overseas will feel free to give it a try.