Life.Culture.Discovery.

Expo 2025 side trip: why foodies flock to Japan’s Awaji Island

Overlooking Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, Awaji Island’s soil, rich in volcanic and oceanic minerals, produces exquisite produce – including onions

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Awaji Island in Japan is famous for its onions. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 6:15pm, 9 Apr 2025

“No onion, no life!” the couple calls out as they don onion-shaped auburn wigs and pose for a photo beside a 2.5 metre-high sculpture of an onion overlooking Japan’s Seto Inland Sea.

It’s a common cry here on Hyogo prefecture’s Awaji Island, and a slogan adorning walls, artwork, packaging, T-shirts and even vending machines.

Visitors to Awaji Nature Lab & Resort are encouraged to join in efforts to preserve and promote the island’s agriculture and food culture. Photo: Handout

Awaji onions generate local pride and are popular with visitors. They are among the produce benefiting from the island’s abundant sunshine and soil rich in volcanic and ocean minerals. Across Japan, shoppers, foodies and Michelin-starred chefs alike seek them out for their intense sweetness, resulting in the island’s alternative moniker, Onion Island.

This summer, businesses on Awaji are hoping that a one-hour ferry service from Osaka’s Yumeshima, the site of Expo 2025, to Higashiura, on the island’s northeast coast, will appeal to gourmands. The service will run only for the duration of the event, until mid-October.

Onaruto Bridge connects Awaji Island and Shikoku Island. Photo: Getty Images

At Uzu-no-oka, an onion-themed dining and shopping complex in southwest Awaji, visitors wait in line to play a crane game. The prize is a shin-tamanegi (a newly harvested onion), which are typically whiter, crispier, juicer and sweeter than mature onions.

“It’s worth the wait and the 500 yen [HK$26] to play,” says a man who took the one-hour bus ride to the island from Shin-Kobe (the island is joined by bridges at both ends, to Honshu to the north and Shikoku to the south) for a day of onion sampling. “This is the season to enjoy shin-tamanegi.”