100 years in the making: What makes Kewpie Mayonnaise so irresistible

The Advertiser

a day ago

It's arguably the world's most recognisable mayonnaise bottle. Kewpie's label-less pear shape, aside from an embossed logo and the plastic packaging it comes in, and its bright red lid.
It's a stroke of marketing brilliance - many brands would kill to have that kind of recognition worldwide.
Its appeal has jumped beyond the supermarket shelf.
Where there was once a space reserved for "homemade aioli" or "housemade mayo" on cafe menus, it's this mass-produced mayonnaise that is standing in the spotlight now. And yet, there is no other condiment that has taken hold of the culinary world such as this one.
You still see housemade barbecue sauce or homemade tomato relish on menus. And no burger joint is complete without a special sauce. But when it comes to mayonnaise, why do menus make a point of mentioning Kewpie mayo?
Kewpie mayonnaise may seem like the newest thing in culinary, a Millennial food obsession that has influenced the hospitality industry.
But you can't even say that Kewpie is the best thing since sliced bread - because the mayo predates it.
The Japanese brand is celebrating its 100th year this year (sliced bread was first sold in 1928), and yes, there are celebrations happening in Japan to mark the occasion, including at the mayonnaise's one museum, Kewpie Mayo Terrace.
But the inspiration behind Kewpie didn't come from Japan itself, but rather internationally. In the 1910s Kewpie's founder travelled to the United States as an intern with the Japanese Department of Agriculture and Commerce.
It was there that he developed a fascination with orange marmalade and the mayonnaise that was on potato salad.
"He found it really tasty," Kewpie Australia managing director Kyoichi Isonaga says.
"And he also realised that the foreign people were taller, bigger than Japanese people. So he found out that this sauce was tasty and then very nutritious. So he wanted to make the Japanese people like that."
And by the time the 1920s came around, Japan as a country had a growing interest in Western culture. Western-style dancing was in vogue, baseball, golf, and tennis were popular, and Hollywood movies were screened in large theatres.
It was the perfect time to launch a Western-style condiment, and in 1925, Kewpie Mayo was first launched in the Japanese market, with the idea that it would be nutritionally beneficial.
"Looking back at our history, at [a] time when eating raw vegetables was still uncommon in Japan, we launched mayonnaise and dressing, which helped to promote the eating of salad," the Kewpie website reads.
The name of the mayo itself was also leaning into those Western influences. The kewpie character had been popular in America since it was first published in the Ladies' Home Journal by American cartoonist Rose O'Neill. This led to the Kewpie dolls that proved very popular in the US and elsewhere.
Australia is a country that loves Japan. And we also love our sushi - a food that has boomed in recent decades. You can't go to a food court now without the option of sushi.
In fact, we love it so much that we have our own influence on the iconic Japanese food. Sushi hand rolls first emerged in Australia in the late 1990s and spread through shopping centre-based chains in the 2000s. It's a style of sushi that in recent years has taken off elsewhere in the world, with "Australian-style" sushi stores first opening in the United States in 2023 and in the United Kingdom in 2024.
But with these stores came the use of Kewpie mayo.
"In the past 10 to 20 years, we tried to expand our brand abroad as well. I don't know the exact reason, but a lot of people, especially in Australia, know that the Kewpie brand," Kyoichi says.
"There's a unique culture in Australia, there are a lot of sushi kiosks. I've never seen a country like that. So there are so many sushi bars or kiosks. Of course, other countries have a sushi restaurant, but not that many in a sushi kiosk. And obviously, people use Kewpie mayo a lot. I think this is a wonderful reason. The people know the Japanese style, mayonnaise."
And once people knew about Kewpie mayonnaise, the uses were endless.
Now, places such as Recess in Griffith will opt for the Japanese-style mayonnaise over anything else.
When the cafe first opened last year, they started making their own Japanese-style mayonnaise, but due to time and space constraints, they've started stocking the original.
"Compared to traditional mayonnaise, it's more like umami, so it's more flavorful," chef Vance Arellano says.
"We still mix our own yuzu juice into it, because I like to control the citrus flavour, but it's the Kewpie mayonnaise that we're using.
"But it's a pretty big trend. Almost every cafe, restaurant, or home mainly has Kewpie mayo.
"Social media has really helped it a lot. Those trends of baked sushi and things that so people got on board with this different kind of mayonnaise."
While the packaging could make you believe that Kewpie is just the same (or similar) recipe with different branding, there are actually key differences when it comes to the recipe.
Kewpie is made with only egg yolks, while whole-egg mayonnaise is obviously made with whole eggs. Yolks add richness and density to recipes, whereas egg whites tend to add a fluffy, light texture.
The yolks are also used as an emulsifier, bringing fat, water and acid together, which is key to making a mayo. Effectively, if the yolk wasn't added with the vegetable oil, water and vinegar, it wouldn't combine and thicken.
But Kewpie is actually quite proud of their emulsion process, because while mayonnaise generally has oil particles 0.005mm in size, they refine it further down, so it is between 0.002mm and 0.004mm, increasing the mayo's creaminess.
The final difference is the vinegar. The secret ingredient, if you will. While other brands and homemade recipes use Western vinegars such as white and malt vinegar, Kewpie had to navigate the selection of Japanese vinegars, which are primarily rice-based. For Nakashima, the milder rice vinegar wasn't ideal for the mayonnaise, but he used it for the first few decades because what the founder considered ideal was not available.
But in 1962, Kewpie founded Nishifu Industries Co., Ltd. (now Kewpie Jyozo Co., Ltd.) with the aim of specifically making vinegar for mayonnaise. This distilled vinegar (as it reads on the label) is added alongside the rice vinegar.
"We mix a lot of types of vinegars - apple vinegar, malt vinegar. But this is very secretive," Kyoichi says.
"But vinegar is key to the taste of mayonnaise. It's very important."
And while the bottle has not always been what it is today - it was originally released in a glass jar - it does play a role in the flavour we know today.
There are no preservatives in Kewpie mayo, which means that any oxygen can impact the flavour and quality of the product. So when the squeezy bottle was introduced in 1958, it was for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, the soft plastic allowed for ease of use, but it was also made up of various layers of different plastic, including a lining, that can help protect the mayo from oxygen. And secondly, the design allowed any oxygen in the top of the bottle to be replaced by nitrogen.
It's arguably the world's most recognisable mayonnaise bottle. Kewpie's label-less pear shape, aside from an embossed logo and the plastic packaging it comes in, and its bright red lid.
It's a stroke of marketing brilliance - many brands would kill to have that kind of recognition worldwide.
Its appeal has jumped beyond the supermarket shelf.
Where there was once a space reserved for "homemade aioli" or "housemade mayo" on cafe menus, it's this mass-produced mayonnaise that is standing in the spotlight now. And yet, there is no other condiment that has taken hold of the culinary world such as this one.
You still see housemade barbecue sauce or homemade tomato relish on menus. And no burger joint is complete without a special sauce. But when it comes to mayonnaise, why do menus make a point of mentioning Kewpie mayo?
Kewpie mayonnaise may seem like the newest thing in culinary, a Millennial food obsession that has influenced the hospitality industry.
But you can't even say that Kewpie is the best thing since sliced bread - because the mayo predates it.
The Japanese brand is celebrating its 100th year this year (sliced bread was first sold in 1928), and yes, there are celebrations happening in Japan to mark the occasion, including at the mayonnaise's one museum, Kewpie Mayo Terrace.
But the inspiration behind Kewpie didn't come from Japan itself, but rather internationally. In the 1910s Kewpie's founder travelled to the United States as an intern with the Japanese Department of Agriculture and Commerce.
It was there that he developed a fascination with orange marmalade and the mayonnaise that was on potato salad.
"He found it really tasty," Kewpie Australia managing director Kyoichi Isonaga says.
"And he also realised that the foreign people were taller, bigger than Japanese people. So he found out that this sauce was tasty and then very nutritious. So he wanted to make the Japanese people like that."
And by the time the 1920s came around, Japan as a country had a growing interest in Western culture. Western-style dancing was in vogue, baseball, golf, and tennis were popular, and Hollywood movies were screened in large theatres.
It was the perfect time to launch a Western-style condiment, and in 1925, Kewpie Mayo was first launched in the Japanese market, with the idea that it would be nutritionally beneficial.
"Looking back at our history, at [a] time when eating raw vegetables was still uncommon in Japan, we launched mayonnaise and dressing, which helped to promote the eating of salad," the Kewpie website reads.
The name of the mayo itself was also leaning into those Western influences. The kewpie character had been popular in America since it was first published in the Ladies' Home Journal by American cartoonist Rose O'Neill. This led to the Kewpie dolls that proved very popular in the US and elsewhere.
Australia is a country that loves Japan. And we also love our sushi - a food that has boomed in recent decades. You can't go to a food court now without the option of sushi.
In fact, we love it so much that we have our own influence on the iconic Japanese food. Sushi hand rolls first emerged in Australia in the late 1990s and spread through shopping centre-based chains in the 2000s. It's a style of sushi that in recent years has taken off elsewhere in the world, with "Australian-style" sushi stores first opening in the United States in 2023 and in the United Kingdom in 2024.
But with these stores came the use of Kewpie mayo.
"In the past 10 to 20 years, we tried to expand our brand abroad as well. I don't know the exact reason, but a lot of people, especially in Australia, know that the Kewpie brand," Kyoichi says.
"There's a unique culture in Australia, there are a lot of sushi kiosks. I've never seen a country like that. So there are so many sushi bars or kiosks. Of course, other countries have a sushi restaurant, but not that many in a sushi kiosk. And obviously, people use Kewpie mayo a lot. I think this is a wonderful reason. The people know the Japanese style, mayonnaise."
And once people knew about Kewpie mayonnaise, the uses were endless.
Now, places such as Recess in Griffith will opt for the Japanese-style mayonnaise over anything else.
When the cafe first opened last year, they started making their own Japanese-style mayonnaise, but due to time and space constraints, they've started stocking the original.
"Compared to traditional mayonnaise, it's more like umami, so it's more flavorful," chef Vance Arellano says.
"We still mix our own yuzu juice into it, because I like to control the citrus flavour, but it's the Kewpie mayonnaise that we're using.
"But it's a pretty big trend. Almost every cafe, restaurant, or home mainly has Kewpie mayo.
"Social media has really helped it a lot. Those trends of baked sushi and things that so people got on board with this different kind of mayonnaise."
While the packaging could make you believe that Kewpie is just the same (or similar) recipe with different branding, there are actually key differences when it comes to the recipe.
Kewpie is made with only egg yolks, while whole-egg mayonnaise is obviously made with whole eggs. Yolks add richness and density to recipes, whereas egg whites tend to add a fluffy, light texture.
The yolks are also used as an emulsifier, bringing fat, water and acid together, which is key to making a mayo. Effectively, if the yolk wasn't added with the vegetable oil, water and vinegar, it wouldn't combine and thicken.
But Kewpie is actually quite proud of their emulsion process, because while mayonnaise generally has oil particles 0.005mm in size, they refine it further down, so it is between 0.002mm and 0.004mm, increasing the mayo's creaminess.
The final difference is the vinegar. The secret ingredient, if you will. While other brands and homemade recipes use Western vinegars such as white and malt vinegar, Kewpie had to navigate the selection of Japanese vinegars, which are primarily rice-based. For Nakashima, the milder rice vinegar wasn't ideal for the mayonnaise, but he used it for the first few decades because what the founder considered ideal was not available.
But in 1962, Kewpie founded Nishifu Industries Co., Ltd. (now Kewpie Jyozo Co., Ltd.) with the aim of specifically making vinegar for mayonnaise. This distilled vinegar (as it reads on the label) is added alongside the rice vinegar.
"We mix a lot of types of vinegars - apple vinegar, malt vinegar. But this is very secretive," Kyoichi says.
"But vinegar is key to the taste of mayonnaise. It's very important."
And while the bottle has not always been what it is today - it was originally released in a glass jar - it does play a role in the flavour we know today.
There are no preservatives in Kewpie mayo, which means that any oxygen can impact the flavour and quality of the product. So when the squeezy bottle was introduced in 1958, it was for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, the soft plastic allowed for ease of use, but it was also made up of various layers of different plastic, including a lining, that can help protect the mayo from oxygen. And secondly, the design allowed any oxygen in the top of the bottle to be replaced by nitrogen.
It's arguably the world's most recognisable mayonnaise bottle. Kewpie's label-less pear shape, aside from an embossed logo and the plastic packaging it comes in, and its bright red lid.
It's a stroke of marketing brilliance - many brands would kill to have that kind of recognition worldwide.
Its appeal has jumped beyond the supermarket shelf.
Where there was once a space reserved for "homemade aioli" or "housemade mayo" on cafe menus, it's this mass-produced mayonnaise that is standing in the spotlight now. And yet, there is no other condiment that has taken hold of the culinary world such as this one.
You still see housemade barbecue sauce or homemade tomato relish on menus. And no burger joint is complete without a special sauce. But when it comes to mayonnaise, why do menus make a point of mentioning Kewpie mayo?
Kewpie mayonnaise may seem like the newest thing in culinary, a Millennial food obsession that has influenced the hospitality industry.
But you can't even say that Kewpie is the best thing since sliced bread - because the mayo predates it.
The Japanese brand is celebrating its 100th year this year (sliced bread was first sold in 1928), and yes, there are celebrations happening in Japan to mark the occasion, including at the mayonnaise's one museum, Kewpie Mayo Terrace.
But the inspiration behind Kewpie didn't come from Japan itself, but rather internationally. In the 1910s Kewpie's founder travelled to the United States as an intern with the Japanese Department of Agriculture and Commerce.
It was there that he developed a fascination with orange marmalade and the mayonnaise that was on potato salad.
"He found it really tasty," Kewpie Australia managing director Kyoichi Isonaga says.
"And he also realised that the foreign people were taller, bigger than Japanese people. So he found out that this sauce was tasty and then very nutritious. So he wanted to make the Japanese people like that."
And by the time the 1920s came around, Japan as a country had a growing interest in Western culture. Western-style dancing was in vogue, baseball, golf, and tennis were popular, and Hollywood movies were screened in large theatres.
It was the perfect time to launch a Western-style condiment, and in 1925, Kewpie Mayo was first launched in the Japanese market, with the idea that it would be nutritionally beneficial.
"Looking back at our history, at [a] time when eating raw vegetables was still uncommon in Japan, we launched mayonnaise and dressing, which helped to promote the eating of salad," the Kewpie website reads.
The name of the mayo itself was also leaning into those Western influences. The kewpie character had been popular in America since it was first published in the Ladies' Home Journal by American cartoonist Rose O'Neill. This led to the Kewpie dolls that proved very popular in the US and elsewhere.
Australia is a country that loves Japan. And we also love our sushi - a food that has boomed in recent decades. You can't go to a food court now without the option of sushi.
In fact, we love it so much that we have our own influence on the iconic Japanese food. Sushi hand rolls first emerged in Australia in the late 1990s and spread through shopping centre-based chains in the 2000s. It's a style of sushi that in recent years has taken off elsewhere in the world, with "Australian-style" sushi stores first opening in the United States in 2023 and in the United Kingdom in 2024.
But with these stores came the use of Kewpie mayo.
"In the past 10 to 20 years, we tried to expand our brand abroad as well. I don't know the exact reason, but a lot of people, especially in Australia, know that the Kewpie brand," Kyoichi says.
"There's a unique culture in Australia, there are a lot of sushi kiosks. I've never seen a country like that. So there are so many sushi bars or kiosks. Of course, other countries have a sushi restaurant, but not that many in a sushi kiosk. And obviously, people use Kewpie mayo a lot. I think this is a wonderful reason. The people know the Japanese style, mayonnaise."
And once people knew about Kewpie mayonnaise, the uses were endless.
Now, places such as Recess in Griffith will opt for the Japanese-style mayonnaise over anything else.
When the cafe first opened last year, they started making their own Japanese-style mayonnaise, but due to time and space constraints, they've started stocking the original.
"Compared to traditional mayonnaise, it's more like umami, so it's more flavorful," chef Vance Arellano says.
"We still mix our own yuzu juice into it, because I like to control the citrus flavour, but it's the Kewpie mayonnaise that we're using.
"But it's a pretty big trend. Almost every cafe, restaurant, or home mainly has Kewpie mayo.
"Social media has really helped it a lot. Those trends of baked sushi and things that so people got on board with this different kind of mayonnaise."
While the packaging could make you believe that Kewpie is just the same (or similar) recipe with different branding, there are actually key differences when it comes to the recipe.
Kewpie is made with only egg yolks, while whole-egg mayonnaise is obviously made with whole eggs. Yolks add richness and density to recipes, whereas egg whites tend to add a fluffy, light texture.
The yolks are also used as an emulsifier, bringing fat, water and acid together, which is key to making a mayo. Effectively, if the yolk wasn't added with the vegetable oil, water and vinegar, it wouldn't combine and thicken.
But Kewpie is actually quite proud of their emulsion process, because while mayonnaise generally has oil particles 0.005mm in size, they refine it further down, so it is between 0.002mm and 0.004mm, increasing the mayo's creaminess.
The final difference is the vinegar. The secret ingredient, if you will. While other brands and homemade recipes use Western vinegars such as white and malt vinegar, Kewpie had to navigate the selection of Japanese vinegars, which are primarily rice-based. For Nakashima, the milder rice vinegar wasn't ideal for the mayonnaise, but he used it for the first few decades because what the founder considered ideal was not available.
But in 1962, Kewpie founded Nishifu Industries Co., Ltd. (now Kewpie Jyozo Co., Ltd.) with the aim of specifically making vinegar for mayonnaise. This distilled vinegar (as it reads on the label) is added alongside the rice vinegar.
"We mix a lot of types of vinegars - apple vinegar, malt vinegar. But this is very secretive," Kyoichi says.
"But vinegar is key to the taste of mayonnaise. It's very important."
And while the bottle has not always been what it is today - it was originally released in a glass jar - it does play a role in the flavour we know today.
There are no preservatives in Kewpie mayo, which means that any oxygen can impact the flavour and quality of the product. So when the squeezy bottle was introduced in 1958, it was for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, the soft plastic allowed for ease of use, but it was also made up of various layers of different plastic, including a lining, that can help protect the mayo from oxygen. And secondly, the design allowed any oxygen in the top of the bottle to be replaced by nitrogen.
It's arguably the world's most recognisable mayonnaise bottle. Kewpie's label-less pear shape, aside from an embossed logo and the plastic packaging it comes in, and its bright red lid.
It's a stroke of marketing brilliance - many brands would kill to have that kind of recognition worldwide.
Its appeal has jumped beyond the supermarket shelf.
Where there was once a space reserved for "homemade aioli" or "housemade mayo" on cafe menus, it's this mass-produced mayonnaise that is standing in the spotlight now. And yet, there is no other condiment that has taken hold of the culinary world such as this one.
You still see housemade barbecue sauce or homemade tomato relish on menus. And no burger joint is complete without a special sauce. But when it comes to mayonnaise, why do menus make a point of mentioning Kewpie mayo?
Kewpie mayonnaise may seem like the newest thing in culinary, a Millennial food obsession that has influenced the hospitality industry.
But you can't even say that Kewpie is the best thing since sliced bread - because the mayo predates it.
The Japanese brand is celebrating its 100th year this year (sliced bread was first sold in 1928), and yes, there are celebrations happening in Japan to mark the occasion, including at the mayonnaise's one museum, Kewpie Mayo Terrace.
But the inspiration behind Kewpie didn't come from Japan itself, but rather internationally. In the 1910s Kewpie's founder travelled to the United States as an intern with the Japanese Department of Agriculture and Commerce.
It was there that he developed a fascination with orange marmalade and the mayonnaise that was on potato salad.
"He found it really tasty," Kewpie Australia managing director Kyoichi Isonaga says.
"And he also realised that the foreign people were taller, bigger than Japanese people. So he found out that this sauce was tasty and then very nutritious. So he wanted to make the Japanese people like that."
And by the time the 1920s came around, Japan as a country had a growing interest in Western culture. Western-style dancing was in vogue, baseball, golf, and tennis were popular, and Hollywood movies were screened in large theatres.
It was the perfect time to launch a Western-style condiment, and in 1925, Kewpie Mayo was first launched in the Japanese market, with the idea that it would be nutritionally beneficial.
"Looking back at our history, at [a] time when eating raw vegetables was still uncommon in Japan, we launched mayonnaise and dressing, which helped to promote the eating of salad," the Kewpie website reads.
The name of the mayo itself was also leaning into those Western influences. The kewpie character had been popular in America since it was first published in the Ladies' Home Journal by American cartoonist Rose O'Neill. This led to the Kewpie dolls that proved very popular in the US and elsewhere.
Australia is a country that loves Japan. And we also love our sushi - a food that has boomed in recent decades. You can't go to a food court now without the option of sushi.
In fact, we love it so much that we have our own influence on the iconic Japanese food. Sushi hand rolls first emerged in Australia in the late 1990s and spread through shopping centre-based chains in the 2000s. It's a style of sushi that in recent years has taken off elsewhere in the world, with "Australian-style" sushi stores first opening in the United States in 2023 and in the United Kingdom in 2024.
But with these stores came the use of Kewpie mayo.
"In the past 10 to 20 years, we tried to expand our brand abroad as well. I don't know the exact reason, but a lot of people, especially in Australia, know that the Kewpie brand," Kyoichi says.
"There's a unique culture in Australia, there are a lot of sushi kiosks. I've never seen a country like that. So there are so many sushi bars or kiosks. Of course, other countries have a sushi restaurant, but not that many in a sushi kiosk. And obviously, people use Kewpie mayo a lot. I think this is a wonderful reason. The people know the Japanese style, mayonnaise."
And once people knew about Kewpie mayonnaise, the uses were endless.
Now, places such as Recess in Griffith will opt for the Japanese-style mayonnaise over anything else.
When the cafe first opened last year, they started making their own Japanese-style mayonnaise, but due to time and space constraints, they've started stocking the original.
"Compared to traditional mayonnaise, it's more like umami, so it's more flavorful," chef Vance Arellano says.
"We still mix our own yuzu juice into it, because I like to control the citrus flavour, but it's the Kewpie mayonnaise that we're using.
"But it's a pretty big trend. Almost every cafe, restaurant, or home mainly has Kewpie mayo.
"Social media has really helped it a lot. Those trends of baked sushi and things that so people got on board with this different kind of mayonnaise."
While the packaging could make you believe that Kewpie is just the same (or similar) recipe with different branding, there are actually key differences when it comes to the recipe.
Kewpie is made with only egg yolks, while whole-egg mayonnaise is obviously made with whole eggs. Yolks add richness and density to recipes, whereas egg whites tend to add a fluffy, light texture.
The yolks are also used as an emulsifier, bringing fat, water and acid together, which is key to making a mayo. Effectively, if the yolk wasn't added with the vegetable oil, water and vinegar, it wouldn't combine and thicken.
But Kewpie is actually quite proud of their emulsion process, because while mayonnaise generally has oil particles 0.005mm in size, they refine it further down, so it is between 0.002mm and 0.004mm, increasing the mayo's creaminess.
The final difference is the vinegar. The secret ingredient, if you will. While other brands and homemade recipes use Western vinegars such as white and malt vinegar, Kewpie had to navigate the selection of Japanese vinegars, which are primarily rice-based. For Nakashima, the milder rice vinegar wasn't ideal for the mayonnaise, but he used it for the first few decades because what the founder considered ideal was not available.
But in 1962, Kewpie founded Nishifu Industries Co., Ltd. (now Kewpie Jyozo Co., Ltd.) with the aim of specifically making vinegar for mayonnaise. This distilled vinegar (as it reads on the label) is added alongside the rice vinegar.
"We mix a lot of types of vinegars - apple vinegar, malt vinegar. But this is very secretive," Kyoichi says.
"But vinegar is key to the taste of mayonnaise. It's very important."
And while the bottle has not always been what it is today - it was originally released in a glass jar - it does play a role in the flavour we know today.
There are no preservatives in Kewpie mayo, which means that any oxygen can impact the flavour and quality of the product. So when the squeezy bottle was introduced in 1958, it was for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, the soft plastic allowed for ease of use, but it was also made up of various layers of different plastic, including a lining, that can help protect the mayo from oxygen. And secondly, the design allowed any oxygen in the top of the bottle to be replaced by nitrogen.