Japan Restaurant Allergy Card

Generate a free Japanese restaurant card for your food allergies and dietary needs. No signup. Mobile-first. Built for tourists in Japan.

👉 Live site: https://tabemasen.io

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Why this exists

Tourists in Japan with food allergies, religious dietary requirements, or lifestyle restrictions (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free) struggle to communicate their needs at restaurants. Many don't know that:

• Japanese "vegetarian" food often contains dashi (fish/bonito stock)
• Standard soy sauce contains wheat (gluten issue)
• Mirin contains alcohol (halal issue)

This is a free, fast, mobile-first web app that generates a polite, accurate Japanese restaurant card you can show on your phone or print. One page, no signup, no tracking.

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Features

• Select from 23 allergens (Japan's 8 mandatory + common others)
• Choose a dietary pattern: Vegetarian · Vegan · Pescatarian · Halal · Kosher · Gluten-free
• Add a custom item (any language, shown as-is)
• Add your name for a personalised greeting
• Live card preview — updates as you tap
• Shareable link (your selections are encoded in the URL)
• Download as PNG for offline use
• Print-friendly stylesheet
• LocalStorage persistence — your selections survive page refresh

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Quick start

No build step. Open index.html directly in your browser, or serve from GitHub Pages.

# Serve locally (any static server)
python3 -m http.server 8000
# → open http://localhost:8000

Deploy to GitHub Pages: push to main branch — enable Pages in repo settings, point to /.

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Adding a new allergen or language

All content lives in data.js. Open it and scroll to the CARD_DATA object.

To add a new allergen:

{ key: 'peanut', japanese: '落花生（ピーナッツ）', english: 'Peanut' },

Add one line — the UI and card will pick it up automatically.

To add a new dietary pattern, add to CARD_DATA.patterns with:

• key — URL-safe identifier
• statement — Japanese sentence declaring the restriction
• exclusions — array of Japanese item names to add to the card's list
• note — (optional) special note appended below the list

Contributions welcome — especially native Japanese speakers reviewing translations.

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Disclaimer

Translations are checked against common Japanese restaurant phrasing but are not a substitute for medical advice or professional translation. If you have a life-threatening allergy, please carry an EpiPen and a doctor's letter in Japanese.

This card was machine-generated. Please verify with the restaurant. Severe allergy sufferers should travel with a doctor's note in Japanese.

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License

MIT