Semantics of "Meat" in Japanese

Welcome to Japan! Where you will find some of the freshest most local vegetables you have ever known. But where you will also find meat, especially fish, in just about every product that exists in this country. And, if you don't speak lots of Japanese, the challenge of eating out and being vegetarian is even more daunting (it still is for me, and I know Japanese ha ha). So let's look at some linguistic things around the concepts of meat in Japanese, and hopefully you'll better be able to order well without getting the surprise meat/fish in your dish you thought you were very clear about not ordering.

The word for meat in Japanese is 肉(にく/niku). That includes 牛肉(ぎゅにく/gyuniku, cow meat, i.e. beef), 鶏肉(とりにく/toriniku, bird meat,i.e. chicken) and 豚肉(ぶたにく/butaniku, pig meat, i.e. pork). So when you say "肉を食べません（にくをたべません）" what you are saying in Japanese is you don't eat beef. (Some folks will extend the concept to chicken and pork, but not always).

Now if you say you don't eat fish, 魚(さかな/sakana), you sort of imply that you don't eat fish, but you still eat other seafood.

This constant round of questions and long lists of what you don't eat can be one of the most tedious things to deal with while being vegetarian in Japan, but in a sense, get used to it. Especially if you are living on a fishing heavy island like me ha ha ha.

So remember, when you say "meat" in Japan, it means mainly the above 3 types of meat. Where in many of our home languages we say "meat" and most folks will include fish and chicken in their definitions of meat, that is not always the case in Japanese, especially if you're one of the few vegetarians some folks have ever met.

So, I've found that saying anything that is/was an 生き物(いきもの/ikimono, living thing) is something I won't eat. But don't fret, most people are just genuinely curious, not being malicious about why you don't eat animal. So learn the long list of animals and animal products you won't eat, and be prepared to be asked "is ____ okay" a million times.

Some popular meat/fish related words in Japanese:
いか/ika, squid; うなぎ/unagi, eel; うに/uni, sea urchin; たこ/tako, octopus; 卵/tamago, egg; えび/ebi, shrimp. Also, know that there is an endless name for local fish and sea creatures, so be prepared to extend your marine life vocabulary :)

The kanji for fish 魚(さかな) is a radical. So, if you see this kanji as a radical on packaging in the ingredients(材料/ざいりょう) list, it is almost guaranteed to have fish, with one exception I can think of: The word "新鮮/しんせん" means "fresh" in Japanese. So although the 鮮 has the radical for fish (魚), 新鮮 just means fresh, and it is usually on packaging for vegetables.

One important character to know would be: 鰹/かつお. This is the bonito fish, and is found in just about everything. And I do mean everything, from sauces to broths to dressings to crackers to chips/crisps. It is hard to escape the bonito fish in Japan, and you may indeed unknowingly consume this (mainly because most people are unaware of how it is actually in everything). But if it's a packaged food, the kanji or hiragana will be on it, so just make sure to read your labels well.