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One of Japan’s biggest restaurant chains calls three different sauces all just “sauce” in English

Casey Baseel Jan 31, 2025
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Would you like Yakiniku Sauce, Yakiniku Sauce, or Yakiniku Sauce today?

Matsuya is one of Japan’s largest and most popular gyudon (beef bowl) chains, offering quick and tasty meals at very affordable prices. Matsuya was even quicker than its rival Yoshinoya to start offering more variety in its menu items and seasonings, and an example of that is the trio of sauces Matsuya customers have at their table or counter seat.

Officially, these are yakiniku sauces, originally meant to be used with the strips of grilled beef or pork in Matsuya’s yakiniku set meals, Some customers also enjoy adding a squirt to their beef bowls, though, so it’s really up to you how to use them. Each bottle contains a different flavor, either an amakuchi (sweet) yakiniku sauce, a ponzu yakiniku sauce with citrus notes, or a “barbecue” yakiniku sauce with some extra salty/smoky flavors, and to make sure you grab the one that fits your current cravings, each bottle is clearly labeled.

…or, at least they’re clearly labeled in Japanese. If you’re relying on the bottles’ English labels, though, you’re out of luck, because…

ものすごい久しぶりに松屋なう。この焼肉のタレシリーズ、全部Yakiniku Sauceって、こんな不親切じゃ英語表記むしろ無い方がいいんじゃ無いかっていう。七味がSeven spiceってのもジワジワくる。 pic.twitter.com/VNhcRChZOi

— Ryo (@whatintheworlda) December 11, 2024

…every single one of them just says “Yakiniku Sauce.”

▼ What do you think? Does today feel like a Yakiniku Sauce day? Or are you in more of a Yakiniku Sauce mood? Oh, oh, maybe it’s time to really mix things up and go with Yakiniku Sauce!

同じく話題のYakiniku Sauce。見納めかもしれん。そもそも、これ、英訳が雑なのではなく、日本人向けなのか。たしかにこれらが焼肉のタレという情報が日本語で無い。
松屋「焼肉のタレ」、3種あるのに全部「Yakiniku Sauce」　英訳公募から1年超、切り替え作業進行中https://t.co/Rs9KF0qXS6 pic.twitter.com/nlffzOFIpo

— kusanoさん@がんばらない (@kusano_k) January 27, 2025

This isn’t a new problem, either. All the way back on November 9, 2023, Matsuya posted on its official Twitter account that it was soliciting suggestions for what to call the three sauces in English.

⚠️緊急募集⚠️
松屋の焼肉のたれ（3種）の英訳をご提案下さい🙏
ご提案頂いた方から抽選で1名様に現在松屋で使っている『焼肉のタレ3種のボトル』をプレゼントさせて頂きます🙇‍♂️

◼️ご提案方法
・引用リポストにてお願いします
・ご提案の締切りは 2023月11月13日（月）まで。#YakinikuSauce pic.twitter.com/O812pcef4J

— 【公式】松屋 (@matsuya_foods) November 10, 2023

The “How do you say…?” text in the tweet image is especially ironic, since we’re not dealing with especially tricky translations in this case. Maybe a decade or so ago “ponzu” might have been a bit of a head-scratcher, but the citrusy soy sauce has now gone on to international popularity under its original name, so like “sushi” there’s no need to do anything other than write it out using the English/Latin alphabet. Amakuchi is also a translation slam dunk: just call it sweet yakiniku sauce.

Oddly enough “barbeque” is the biggest challenge, as Matsuya’s barbeque yakiniku sauce is much thinner and milder than what most English natives will imagine when they think of “barbecue sauce.” In addition, unlike ponzu, which is a common condiment in Japanese cooking, Matsuya’s barbecue yakiniku sauce is an original blend that the chain makes itself, presenting a difficult challeng- …oh, wait, then just call it “Matsuya original yakiniku sauce.”

▼ This isn’t “Kaworu says ‘Suki tte koto sa’ to Shinji”-level translation complexity here, Matsuya.

The whole situation would be understandable if Matsuya were a small independent restaurant or one without a lot of international customers, but since it’s one of the largest chains in Japan, and one with available English-language menus and order kiosk interfaces, it’s all pretty baffling, especially since Matsuya itself has been explicitly aware of the potential for confusion for at least a year and two months. During that time, Matsuya was able to negotiate for the Lithuanian ambassador to Japan to come in and work a shift in one of their branches, so surely they’ve had enough time to come up with three English sauce names, haven’t they?

Adding another strange wrinkle to the story is that Matsuya’s tweet seeking sauce name suggestions includes a promise that one respondent would be chosen to receive a prize. Contests where businesses solicit input from consumers can sometimes cause intellectual property tangles, and theoretically having to select a single prize recipient for three submitted names could make it hard to determine the rightful winner if there were partial overlaps between multiple entries. However, the contest rules state that the prize recipient would be randomly chosen, not necessarily an entrant who submitted names that Matsuya eventually chose to use, and in any case the prize was nothing more than a set of the three current yakiniku sauce bottles, hardly the sort of thing that would roadblock the entire initiative for clearer English labeling.

Matsuya has said, as of this month, that it is still in the process of redesigning/replacing the bottles, and that even once new ones start showing up, it will take some time for them to reach all branches. So in the meantime, since you’ll have to rely on the bottles’ Japanese text, 甘口 is the sweet sauce, ポン酢 the ponzu, and バーベキュー barbecue.

Source: J-Cast News via Livedoor News via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso (edited by SoraNews24)
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