Doggy Bags in Japan

ANSWER

Asking to take leftovers home is common in some countries and unusual in Japan, where most restaurants will politely decline. The typical reason given is food safety: once food has left the kitchen and sat on a table, the restaurant can no longer guarantee how it was handled afterward, and staff generally don't want to be responsible for a customer getting sick from food eaten hours later. This is essentially the reverse of the assumption many Western visitors travel with, where declining a box can feel odd to the customer even though it's standard practice here. A small number of restaurants, particularly some izakaya and Western-style chains, will pack extra food on request, but it should be treated as the exception rather than something to plan around — the safer assumption is to order only what you expect to finish.