Choosing Furusato Nozei Thank-You Gifts by Ingredients (2026): 12 Soy Sauce, Miso, Dashi, Ham, Soba and Mochi Compared

PR This article contains ads. “See on Rakuten” links are Rakuten affiliate links (Rakuten Furusato Nozei gift pages), and the au PAY Furusato Nozei and Furusato Honpo buttons are affiliate ads (A8.net).

To count a donation toward this year’s deduction, you have to make it by December 31. Many people choose their thank-you gifts at the end of the year.

Unlike food you buy at the supermarket, a food gift from furusato nozei (Japan’s hometown tax donation program) cannot be turned over to read the back of the package before it arrives. You rely on the gift page, but whether the ingredient list (原材料名) is written there depends on the gift.

For this article, we checked the ingredient lists written on the gift pages of 12 gifts on Rakuten Furusato Nozei on November 2, 2026, and compared them in tables. The gifts are soy sauce, miso, dashi (soup stock), ham, sausage, soba and kirimochi (cut rice cakes). We also summarize:

• How far the law goes in setting ingredient labeling on online sales pages
• The rules for thank-you gifts (the 30% rule, the 50% rule, and the local-product rule), and the changes in October 2025 and October 2026
• The conditions and deadline for the one-stop exception (ワンストップ特例)

Bottom line: check whether the gift page lists the ingredients

• The labeling rules of the Food Labeling Act apply to the container or package, not to online sales pages. In its June 2022 guidebook, the Consumer Affairs Agency recommends that online sales pages also list ingredients and other information in line with the Food Labeling Standards as far as possible
• Of the 13 gifts we checked, 12 had the ingredient list written out as text on the gift page. One (a nitrite-free sausage, “mu-enseki” 無塩せき) had “additive-free” in its title but no ingredient list field
• Gifts of the same kind had different contents. Soba ranged from juwari (100% buckwheat) noodles made only from buckwheat flour to inaka (country-style) soba with wheat flour listed first. Kirimochi ranged from rice cakes made only from glutinous rice (水稲もち米) to ones with a glutinous rice flour preparation and modified starch. For meat, there was ham made with a color-developing agent and phosphates, and a sausage made without them
• Even when a gift says “無添加” (additive-free), what it leaves out differs from gift to gift. Some gifts had descriptions that did not match their ingredient lists
• Since October 1, 2025, portal sites have been banned from giving points on donations. From October 2026, gifts processed locally must come with proof that “more than half of the value was created locally”

What is covered in this article

Ingredient listings on gift pages are not a legal requirement

The Food Labeling Standards, set under the Food Labeling Act, cover labeling on the container or package. Listing ingredients and other information on an online shop is outside the scope of the Food Labeling Standards. Furusato nozei gift pages are treated the same as other online sales pages.

In June 2022, the Consumer Affairs Agency published a guidebook on providing food labeling information in online sales. It recommends that online shops provide information as follows (this is not an obligation).

Soy sauce, miso and dashi

* Ingredient lists are as shown on the Rakuten Furusato Nozei gift pages (checked November 2, 2026). Donation amounts are those on the day we checked, and the contents are those of the smallest option offered for each gift.

• The two soy sauces are both “soy sauce” gifts, but their ingredient lists are completely different. Yuasa soy sauce is only soybeans, wheat, salt and alcohol. Cattleya soy sauce is sweet soy sauce, made by adding sugar, fermented seasoning, sweeteners and more to “soy sauce” (for the kinds of soy sauce, see our article on types of soy sauce)
• Neither of the two dashi lists any food additives. Kayanoya Dashi gets its flavor from yeast extract, salt and powdered soy sauce, while Otokichi no Dashi is only fish flakes, niboshi and kelp. The Otokichi no Dashi gift page states “no chemical seasonings, salt or yeast extract” (for the ingredients and salt in granulated dashi and dashi packs, see our article on granulated dashi and dashi packs)

Ham and sausage

* On the Ikeda Town gift page, the ham’s ingredient list runs on into the additives without using “／” (the slash that normally separates them). In the table, we split the additives into the right-hand column. The bacon’s ingredient list is as far as the page wrote it.

• The Makubetsu Town sausage has “無塩せき” (“mu-enseki”: made without curing agents such as nitrites) and “no preservatives or binders” in its title, and its ingredient list has no additives. However, the description says it is “made only with salt, sugar and spices,” while the ingredient list also includes onion. When the description and the ingredient list differ, the ingredient list is the label
• The Ikeda Town ham uses a color-developing agent (sodium nitrite and potassium nitrate), phosphates, a preservative and more. For color-developing agents in ham and sausage and what “無塩せき” means, see our article on color-developing agents
• There was one more gift, a mu-enseki sausage from Awa City (阿波市), Tokushima. Its title said “additive-free,” but its gift page had no ingredient list field, so we could not compare it

Soba and kirimochi

• The Horokanai Town juwari soba has only buckwheat flour as an ingredient, and its gift page says “no binder at all” and “no salt either.” The Sagae City inaka soba lists wheat flour first. Because ingredients on dried noodles are listed in descending order by weight, the buckwheat flour is thought to be less than the wheat flour (for the rules on labeling the buckwheat share, see our article on toshikoshi soba and ozoni)
• The Shonai Town kirimochi has only glutinous rice as an ingredient. The Inzai City nama kirimochi uses a glutinous rice flour preparation and glutinous rice, plus modified starch, glycine and a pH adjuster for shelf life

How expiration dates are written

On the gift pages, most dates were written as a period counted from the manufacturing date, such as “24 months from the manufacturing date” (Yuasa soy sauce) and “540 days from the manufacturing date” (Inzai City mochi). This does not tell you how many days will be left when the gift arrives.

The closest to the “time remaining” form the guidebook recommends was the Horokanai Town soba (“we deliver items with a best-before date of at least 3 months at the time of shipment”). For Kayanoya Dashi, the page said “see the separate product label” and gave no number of days.

Gift rules and the 2025 and 2026 changes

Furusato nozei thank-you gifts are subject to standards set by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC).

The main recent changes are as follows.

The changes from October 2026 are meant to make it harder to approve gifts such as “raw materials brought in from outside the municipality and merely boxed inside it.” Checking the origin of the raw materials and where they are processed on the gift page is likely to matter even more from now on.

The way gift pages are written also differs from one furusato nozei site to another. If you compare the descriptions of the same gift on several sites, it becomes easier to find a page that lists the ingredients and the date.

One-stop exception and deadlines

* Under the one-stop exception, the whole deduction is taken from the next fiscal year’s resident tax. With a tax return, the deduction is split between income tax and resident tax, but the total deduction is the same (MIC and the National Tax Agency).

According to the MIC’s status survey, the amount received through furusato nozei in fiscal 2025 (April 2025 to March 2026) was about ¥1.3314 trillion, and the number of donations was about 59.63 million. Both were record highs (fiscal 2024 was about ¥1.2728 trillion and about 58.79 million).

Frequently asked questions

Do furusato nozei gifts always list their ingredients?

No. The Food Labeling Standards’ labeling rules apply to containers and packages, and online sales pages such as gift pages are outside their scope. In its guidebook, the Consumer Affairs Agency recommends listing them in line with the Food Labeling Standards as far as possible. The package of a gift that arrives carries the same labeling as ordinary food.

Does an “additive-free” gift contain no additives at all?

It differs from gift to gift. Check what it leaves out in the ingredient list, not just in the description. For the rules on “無添加” (additive-free) labeling, see our article on the rules for “無添加” labeling.

Do Rakuten Furusato Nozei points still apply?

Since October 1, 2025, a notice from the MIC has banned portal sites from giving points on donations. Ordinary points given by credit card companies are not covered.

What is the deadline for the one-stop exception?

January 10 of the year after the donation (must arrive by then if mailed). If you donate to 6 or more municipalities, or file a tax return for reasons such as the medical expense deduction, you claim the deduction on the tax return.

Also worth knowing

• Buckwheat share and the ingredients of kirimochi → our article on toshikoshi soba and ozoni
• Ingredients and salt in granulated dashi and dashi packs → our article on granulated dashi and dashi packs
• Color-developing agents in ham and sausage, and “無塩せき” (mu-enseki) → our article on color-developing agents
• Rules for “無添加” (additive-free) and “不使用” (not used) labeling → our article on the rules for “無添加” labeling
• What “無添加” means in osechi (New Year’s dishes) → our article on additive-free osechi

Summary of products featured in this article

Here is a recap of what we introduced. The reasons and ingredients are written in each section.

Product featured	Where to buy
湯浅醤油 二度仕込み, Yuasa Town (湯浅町), Wakayama	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・湯浅町) PR
カトレア醤油, Beppu City (別府市), Oita	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・別府市) PR
わが味噌, Kitakami City (北上市), Iwate	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・北上市) PR
フンドーキン 生詰 あわせ味噌, Usuki City (臼杵市), Oita	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・臼杵市) PR
茅乃舎だし, Hisayama Town (久山町), Fukuoka	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・久山町) PR
乙吉のだし, Yaizu City (焼津市), Shizuoka	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・焼津市) PR
十勝の無添加豚 無添加ウインナーソーセージ, Makubetsu Town (幕別町), Hokkaido	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・幕別町) PR
ベーコン＆ボンレスハム・ロースハム, Ikeda Town (池田町), Hokkaido	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・池田町) PR
白銀の郷 十割そば, Horokanai Town (幌加内町), Hokkaido	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・幌加内町) PR
さがえの田舎そば, Sagae City (寒河江市), Yamagata	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・寒河江市) PR
杵つき切りもち, Shonai Town (庄内町), Yamagata	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・庄内町) PR
生切り餅「おらが一番」, Inzai City (印西市), Chiba	See on Rakuten (楽天ふるさと納税・印西市) PR
au PAY Furusato Nozei	au PAY ふるさと納税 PR
Furusato Honpo	ふるさと本舗 PR

Sources

• Individual gift pages on Rakuten Furusato Nozei (Yuasa Town, Beppu City, Kitakami City, Usuki City, Hisayama Town, Yaizu City, Makubetsu Town, Ikeda Town, Horokanai Town, Sagae City, Inzai City, Shonai Town, Awa City). Checked November 2, 2026
• Consumer Affairs Agency, “Guidebook on Providing Food Labeling Information in Online Sales” (June 2022)
• MIC, “Results of the Status Survey on Furusato Nozei (conducted in fiscal 2026)” and “How Furusato Nozei Works (Tax Deductions),” and the furusato nozei designation system (MIC Notice No. 203 of 2024 and MIC Notice No. 220 of 2025)
• National Tax Agency, “No. 1155 Furusato Nozei (Deduction for Donations)”
• Rakuten Group, “Filing of a lawsuit seeking a declaration of invalidity of the MIC notice banning points on furusato nozei” (July 10, 2025), and Rakuten Ichiba, “Rakuten Furusato Nozei Guide to Tax Deduction Procedures”