Sushi, sashimi, teriyaki, miso soup, ramen, yakitori, etc.— their unique flavors largely due to the seasonings that are used. In a sense, you can cook your own version of Japanese food once you learn these seasonings. Here is the comprehensive list of the seasonings that play key roles in flavoring Japanese cuisine.
Shoyu is made by brewing soybeans, water, wheat, salt, and other ingredients. Its clean but full-bodied flavor is good as both a cooking seasoning and a dipping sauce. Manipulating the brewing process and the amounts of the ingredients creates different types and flavors. Koikuchi shoyu is the most common type. For the health conscious, gen-en shoyu (reduced-salt soy sauce) is also available. You can hardly tell the difference in flavor between the two.
Some dishes do not work well with the dark color of shoyu because it ruins their pale color palettes. In these instances, usukuchi shoyu (light-colored soy sauce) is often used. It actually tastes saltier than koikuchi shoyu, so don't be misled by its light color. Shiro shoyu (soy sauce that contains more wheat to give it a light color and flavor) is another option. It has a lighter color than usukuchi shoyu and doesn't alter the color of the dish but adds a mild shoyu flavor.
Tamari-shoyu contains a greater amount of soybeans than the others and, therefore, it has a thick texture and rich flavor. It's often used as a dipping sauce as well as for teriyaki or grilled dishes, which require a full-bodied flavor.
Some other popular variations like dashi-iri shoyu (dashi broth added to soy sauce), soba-tsuyu (a noodle sauce combining soy sauce with mirin and sugar), and ponzu shoyu (soy sauce with citrus) are popular seasonings among Japanese.
Miso is a fermented seasoning paste made of soybeans, koji malt, and salt. Soybeans, rice, wheat, and many other beans are used to make koji malt, which helps to convert starch to sugar. Miso's taste is determined primarily by the type of ingredients, the amount of each ingredient, and the length of the aging period. There are two main types of miso: aka miso (red miso) and shiro miso (white miso). In general, the former has a darker color than the latter and is richer and saltier in terms of flavor.
The taste of miso is closely related to local food culture, and it varies from region to region. Good examples of this are “haccho miso” and “saikyo miso.” Haccho miso is native to Aichi prefecture, and it employs soybean koji to give it a richer flavor. Haccho miso boasts a full-bodied flavor with a slight bitterness and is a key ingredient of the region's delicacies like miso katsu (fried breaded pork with miso sauce) and miso nikomi udon (boiled udon noodles with miso base broth). Saikyo miso, on the other hand, is a lighter and milder miso that comes from the Kansai area (the region surrounding Kyoto and Osaka). Unlike haccho miso, rice koji is used for saikyo miso. Its salt content is much lower than that of other miso pastes.
Japanese people use miso paste not only for miso soup but also for marinades and dipping sauces. They play with the different flavors and mix several different types of miso to get the best results for their dishes. Miso is very flavorful and goes well with western ingredients as well, so you can create a new taste just by adding a touch of miso to a dish.
Sake is an important seasoning in Japanese cooking that is used to give mild flavor and a touch of sweetness. It's often used in boiled dishes. Sake contains amino acid, which is the key component in creating umami. Sake also reduces the smell of fish and meat. There is a “cooking sake” specifically made for food preparation which contains salt, vinegar and some other additional ingredients not found in regular sake. You can use both regular sake and cooking sake for food preparation, but you would not want to drink the cooking sake because of that.
Vol.057
Sweet and Romantic Treats from Japan 
