Halam in Japan

Our laboratory has many Indonesian students who are Muslim. They only can eat food which allowed by commandment. That food called "Halal". According to the commandment, they cannot eat pork or take alcohol. So they should check the content of food before they buy or eat. But, of course in Japan, ingredient labelings are written in Japanese. And the most difficult thing for them is to read "kanji". At this time, I want to introduce Japanese "kanji" not for Japanese but for foreigners, especially Indonesian, who live in Japan.

At first, alcohol. In Japanese, it's called "アルコール" or "酒精", "酒", "さけ". So, if you see this letter, you should be careful that that product may contain alcohol or have been made in the process of brewing.

Second, pork. It's called "ブタ" or "豚","豚肉", "ぶた", "ポーク". Sometimes, you can see the letter "ラード". This is lard which comes from pork oil. The letter "ゼラチン" is gelatin. It is used for jelly or thickener. But It is made from pork. So, please be careful about those. Excessively, this is Japanese strange and interesting things, although the letter "河豚" can see the letter "豚", it's fish.

I hope Japan has products that are halal or not contain alcohol or pork more and more.