First Shopping List: Fermented Foods Abroad (初めての買い物リスト)

A first basket that covers the system: one awase miso, one koikuchi, one koji seasoning - and where each is sold, by country type.

The core three	Awase miso (everyday), koikuchi shoyu (all-purpose), and shio koji or dried koji (the koji gateway)
Add next	Tamari if wheat matters, umeboshi and one takuan or fukujinzuke pack to meet the pickles
Channel types - US	Japanese grocers, general Asian supermarkets, and online Japanese-food retailers. US is the largest export market for both miso and shoyu
Channel types - UK and Australia	Japanese and East-Asian grocers in major cities, Japanese department-store food halls, and online specialists; UK miso imports grew fastest in recent trade figures (+141% year on year in 2024)

Buy types, not brands, on the first trip: one blended miso, one standard soy sauce, and one koji product will teach you more than three bottles of the same kind. Prices vary too much by country and shop for a guide to quote; what this page fixes is the order and the type names to look for, in English and Japanese (the label pages give the characters).

A note on timing: shio koji is the item whose overseas availability is actively changing - a major maker was reported in 2026 to be preparing US consumer sales of liquid shio koji. If your local shop does not stock it yet, dried rice koji plus the salt in your kitchen is the same gateway; the koji section explains both forms. No stock is promised here - check the shop, not this page, for what is on the shelf today.

First Shopping List: Fermented Foods Abroad (初めての買い物リスト)

See also