Mentaiko did not start in Fukuoka, and Fukuya's own site points to Korea. The company's principles page says its founder spent his wartime childhood in Busan, could not forget a local dish of pollock roe pickled kimchi-style, and set out to recreate that taste after returning to Hakata.
The National Karashi Mentaiko Food Fair Trade Council, based in Hakata Ward, says spicy roe was already imported and sold in fish shops in Fukuoka, Kitakyushu and Shimonoseki before Kawahara's version appeared, and that the product became nationally famous especially after the Sanyo Shinkansen reached Hakata in 1975.
From Korean roe to Hakata
The council's account of the food starts on the Korean peninsula. Its page on the story of karashi mentaiko says eating processed walleye pollock roe had spread there by around the 17th century, and that the chili-coated form became, like kimchi and gochujang, one of the peninsula's traditional foods using red pepper.
The Japanese name comes from Korean. According to the council, walleye pollock is called "myeongtae" in Korean, written 明太魚 or 明太 in Chinese characters, so the roe (子, ko) of the myeongtae became 明太子, mentaiko.
The council dates the first imports only to an era. From the early Showa period, it says, chili- and garlic-coated mentaiko was imported into Japan, and in areas with close ties to the peninsula it sat in fishmongers' displays as an everyday side dish.
The turning point came after the Second World War. The council says it "is said" that Hakata's karashi mentaiko began when Kawahara Toshio, who had grown up in Korea and was later the founder of Fukuya, returned to Hakata and, from around 1949, made his own product seasoned with a chili-based liquid and sold it in Nakasu.
That hedge matters. The industry council introduces the Kawahara story with "it is said", while Fukuya's own page states that on 10 January 1949 it sold "Aji no Mentaiko" "for the first time in Japan".
The two claims can both stand if you read them carefully. Fukuya claims the first sale of its own seasoned-liquid product under its own name; the council records that spicy pollock roe itself was already on sale in Japan, imported from Korea, before then.
The decoder table below sorts out the names you will see on packs, shop signs and menus in Fukuoka.
| Name | Local name | What it is | Price range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karashi mentaiko | 辛子めんたいこ / 辛子明太子 | Pollock roe seasoned with a red-pepper liquid | Not published |
| Tarako | たらこ | Salted walleye pollock roe, the base for mentaiko | Not published |
| Walleye pollock | すけとうだら | Fish whose ovaries are the only permitted raw material | Not applicable |
| One sac, two sacs | 一腹 / 二腹 | Counting unit: a paired ovary is one "hara" | Not applicable |
| Aji no Mentaiko | 味の明太子 | Fukuya's product name since 1949 | Not published |
| Fair mark | 公正マーク | Council mark for approved packaging and labels | No fee stated for shoppers |
| Myeongtae | ミョンテ (明太) | Korean name for walleye pollock, per the council | Not applicable |
| Canned mentaiko | 缶明太子 | Fukuya's oil-packed tin, 85 g, shelf-stable | Not published separately |
Fukuya's own record
Fukuya's history page gives the dates plainly. The shop opened on 5 October 1948 in Nakasu, Hakata Ward, and on 10 January 1949, the day of the Toka Ebisu festival that traders mark for good business, it made and sold mentaiko for the first time.
So a shorthand such as "Fukuya, founded 1949" mixes up two events. The business is from 1948; its mentaiko is from January 1949. The company became a joint-stock company, Fukuya Co., Ltd., on 27 August 1980.
The company's principles page tells the founding story in more detail. Kawahara Toshio opened a small grocery with his wife Chizuko in a Nakasu that was still a burnt-out ruin after the war, and he worked by trial and error to recreate the "tarako kimchi pickle" he remembered from Busan.
The history then lists a unified shop identity in 1957, nationwide delivery using air freight from 1970, an order centre in 1985, a new food factory in 1994, a website from January 1997 and online sales from December 1997.
The history also records that in 1987, the company's 40th anniversary year, the then president Kawahara Chizuko received a management award as a woman company head, and it marks 25 January 2013 as the centenary of the founder's birth.
Food safety systems came later in that story. The same history records ISO 14001 environmental certification for the manufacturing division in 1999 and ISO 22000 food safety certification for the Fukuya food factory in May 2008.
Fukuya has stayed rooted in Fukuoka. Its principles page says its directly run shops are basically limited to Fukuoka, so that staff can sell face to face, and the company supports local festivals including Hakata Gion Yamakasa and Hakata Dontaku.
The raw material is walleye pollock roe. Fukuya's FAQ says it buys first-grade ovaries that have been salted after landing, and its overseas product list gives the origin of the roe in its canned mentaiko as "Russia or the United States".
Heat level is the main choice at a Fukuya counter. The FAQ lists four: Regular (hot), the original taste since launch; Mild (medium); Dokkara (extra hot); and Nonkara (not hot), with the pepper's pungent component suppressed. Regular and Mild come coloured or uncoloured, while Dokkara and Nonkara are uncoloured only.
Who makes it now
Fukuya is one maker among many. The council's member list, dated May 2026, names 77 manufacturer members, including Fukuya, Kanefuku, Tokyo Kanefuku, Yamaya Communications and Yamaguchi Aburaya Fukutaro.
The council itself was set up by the industry. Its Q&A says it was founded in 1989 by mentaiko businesses across Japan to operate the industry's labelling code, with three kinds of member: manufacturers, sellers such as department stores and supermarkets, and special members dealing in packaging and ingredients.
Its office is in Fukuoka City, at Hakata-eki-higashi 2-chome in Hakata Ward, and its special members include the Hakata Karashi Mentai Cooperative. The council's history explains the cluster in its own words: after Kawahara's start, more makers appeared, mainly in Fukuoka City, and competition drove product development.
The council describes its work as more than labels. Its Q&A lists training on the code and related laws, publicity, examination of fair-mark products, and consultation, investigation and guidance for members. The member list also includes seller members, such as Maruichi Maeda Shoji and Tasuke, alongside the makers.
The fair mark is voluntary. The council says a member can decide freely whether to seek approval; a maker with five pack sizes might put only one through examination.
For another Fukuoka food institution measured by official numbers rather than reputation, our guide to how many yatai remain looks at the city's own figures for its street stalls and what they mean for an evening out.
The code behind the mark has legal standing. The council says its "Fair Competition Code concerning the labelling of karashi mentaiko foods" was approved by the Fair Trade Commission on 1 November 1988, under the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations, and it rests on three pillars: required label items, a ban on excessive packaging and a ban on misleading claims. Its Q&A adds that the code's clauses draw on related laws, including the premiums and representations act, the JAS Act and the Food Sanitation Act.
The comparison below shows what each label feature does and does not tell you.
| Label feature | What the council says it means | What it does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| Fair mark (公正マーク) | Council examined the packaging and labels of that product | Not a taste or safety ranking of the maker |
| No fair mark | Labelling not guaranteed by the council | The council does not say it is lower quality |
| Raw material すけとうだら | Proper name for walleye pollock, per the council | Not the country of origin of the roe |
| "Handmade" (手造り) | Banned term; all mentaiko is essentially hand-processed | No quality difference |
| "Hon-zuke" (本漬け) | Banned term; old name for the standard liquid method | No special process |
| "Finest" or "premium" (最高の逸品, 極上) | Grade claims without objective basis the code targets | Not an official grade |
Reading a mentaiko label
The council's definition is the starting point for any label. The code defines karashi mentaiko as walleye pollock ovaries, including the eggs, flavoured with a seasoning liquid or similar that uses red pepper as a raw material.
The raw material itself has a few facts worth knowing when you look at a display case. The council says walleye pollock is a cod-family fish found widely across the North Pacific, growing to 60 to 70 cm, and that its ovaries come as a joined pair, counted as one hara (一腹), two hara and so on. A single fish's ovaries hold roughly 200,000 to 1.5 million eggs.
The council adds nutrition notes from Japan's official food composition tables: pollock roe contains vitamins B1, B2 and E, and provides 121 kilocalories per 100 grams.
Other roe does not qualify. The council says labelling a product made from other fish roe, such as Pacific cod roe, as karashi mentaiko breaks the code, and that the proper name for the ingredient is すけとうだら, not the common すけそうだら.
Two popular sales words are banned. The council explains that removing foreign matter and seasoning cannot be done by machine, so all mentaiko is made by hand to some degree, and "handmade" or "hon-zukuri" labels would mislead you into thinking other products were inferior.
"Hon-zuke" is the second. The council says it once distinguished liquid-soaked mentaiko from the older method of coating the roe; today almost all mentaiko is liquid-soaked, so the term describes nothing special and is not allowed.
Makers show the mark in one of two ways, according to the council: by buying mark stickers from the council and applying one to each product, or by printing it directly on the wrapping from artwork the council supplies. It comes in a small (No. 1) and a large (No. 2) size.
The system is not unique to mentaiko. The council notes that fair marks based on industry codes also exist for 17 kinds of product, among them drinking milk, honey, ham and sausages, fresh noodles, miso and table salt, as of May 2019.
The fair mark has a limited life. The council says approval lasts three years and must be renewed, the next renewal deadline is April 2029, and it holds examinations in principle on the last Tuesday of each month, with the next on 29 September 2026.
The council also lists what the code is designed to stop: boxes much larger than their contents, and exaggerated or false claims such as ungrounded grade words like "finest" and "premium", or "additive-free" on products that do use additives.
Seeing it made in Fukuoka
Fukuya runs a factory you can visit. Its 2013 history entry records the opening of a museum called Hakata no Shoku to Bunka no Hakubutsukan (Hakuhaku); the facility's own website now calls it Fukuya Aji no Mentaiko Factory and says it reopened after renovation on 1 February 2026.
The factory site lists what is inside: a factory tour, a make-your-own mentaiko corner, a café serving mentai chazuke and an all-you-can-eat mentaiko set, a factory shop with freshly made raw mentaiko and good-value loose roe (皮付きばらこ), a full-size Hakata Gion Yamakasa float, and a history corner recreating the original shop front.
The tour format keeps changing. The site's news section says that from 19 September 2026 visitors can join a "factory tour spy mission", in which you make a pair of spy goggles and work through a workshop, stamp rally and quiz to uncover the secrets of the product's flavour, with a sticker for completing it.
Practical details are on the same page. Admission is free, hours are 10:00 to 16:00, and it is closed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and over New Year, with occasional extra closures for maintenance; the address is 福岡市東区社領2-14-28 in Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, and the listed telephone number is 092-621-8989 if you need to check the day's schedule.
Check the factory calendar before you go. The site's calendar shows production-line stop days, says the line can also be idle on other days for maintenance, and notes that the building opens as normal on stop days; if seeing the line running matters to you, pick a working day.
If you want to buy from the source rather than at an airport or station shop, Fukuya's principles page is the clearest guide: its directly run shops are basically limited to Fukuoka. The factory shop adds products the site says are only available there, including freshly made raw mentaiko.
Taking mentaiko home
Chilled mentaiko is a perishable food, and the maker's instructions are short. Fukuya's FAQ says to keep it refrigerated, eat it soon after opening, and follow the refrigerated best-before date printed on each pack.
If you need something that travels without a cool box, the canned version is the official alternative. Fukuya's overseas list describes an 85 g tin of mentaiko in oil with a shelf life of three years at room temperature, and a tinned tuna product, Mentsuna Kankan, with the same three-year life.
Fukuya also ships abroad, to a short list of places. Its overseas page offers sets for Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and South Korea, priced in yen including tax and shipping, from ¥5,530 for the cheapest Korea sets, and warns that local import duties may be charged.
The ordering process is manual. Fukuya asks overseas customers to email an order in English letters and numbers, then sends a payment request; you pay in yen by credit card or PayPal. Orders received by noon on Friday leave Japan the following Tuesday, delivery dates and times cannot be chosen, and some destinations have areas where delivery is not possible.
Japan Post's page also shows how the service has shrunk and moved. It says Cool EMS to India and France ended on 1 June 2022, and that from 5 May 2024 the post office handling Cool EMS changed from Nihonbashi to Nihonbashi-Kuramae.
The chilled route abroad is uncertain. Fukuya's page says it has suspended chilled overseas orders until Japan Post restarts Cool EMS, but Japan Post's own Cool EMS page lists the service to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, with Hong Kong and Thailand temporarily suspended. The two pages disagree, so ask Fukuya before ordering chilled goods.
For shopping more generally, our guide to Japan's tax-free refund change explains how the new refund system works. Check your own country's rules on bringing in fish products before you fly, because this guide has not verified any destination's import rules.
What this guide does not cover
Airline rules on dry ice and ice packs, and import rules for fish roe in other countries, are not covered, because the airline pages tried could not be read and no destination's customs rules were checked. Prices for Fukuya's domestic packs are also left out, as they change and were not recorded from the sources.
The Korean name of the ancestral roe dish is not given here, because none of the sources read names it; the council gives only the Korean word for the fish. No official production statistics for Fukuoka were read either, so this guide makes no claim about how much mentaiko the city produces or which maker sells the most.
Stories that Kawahara deliberately shared his recipe with competitors, or chose not to patent it, are not repeated, because no official source read for this guide states them. Its account of the origin rests on the council's "it is said" and on Fukuya's own history.