Nothing adds flavor to Japan travel like ekiben. Just as its name brings together the words eki (train station) and bento (boxed meal), ekiben combine the joys of efficient railways with the pleasures of Japanese cuisine.
The roots of ekiben can be traced back to the Jomon period, which spanned more than 10,000 years from about 14,000 to 300 BCE. At the Sannai-Maruyama site in the northern prefecture of Aomori, a pouch made from tree bark was found. It contained the remains of walnuts, suggesting that, when it came to portable food, the hunter-gatherers of prehistoric Japan opted for low-carb.
With the move to an agriculture-based economy, rice became – and remains – the mainstay of meals on the go in Japan.
Travelers in ancient times had to carry that rice with them. There were no food stalls along the way and, in any case, the country’s coinage system was still in its infancy. In other words, there were no meals to buy and no money to buy them with.
But those on the road could hunt for fish or birds or forage for grasses, fruit and nuts. An 11th-century collection of laws, the Ruijyu Sandaikyaku, called for the planting of fruit trees along highways so that travelers would not starve.
The practice of foraging on the move continued into the era of civil war known as the Warring States Period (1467-1615). While on the march, rank-and-file soldiers would pick nuts and edible plants to supplement the rice and miso they carried.
It is also in this age that the word, bento, is said to have come into use; it makes an appearance in a 1597 dictionary.
After some 150 years of war, the Tokugawa clan emerged as the victors and went on to control the country until 1868. Their rule – known as the Edo period – was a time of relative peace. Mainstream culture developed and, along with it, bento boxes. People brought them along for visits to shrines, boat rides and flower-viewing excursions – hanami.
Japanese theater also took off in this era, with the kabuki form becoming particularly popular. Performances were all-day affairs, leading to the sale of boxed meals to theater-goers. This marked the entrance of the makunouchi, or intermission, bento, now one of the most well-known types of bento in Japan. The historic version features rice pressed into little bundles or balls – easier to eat in a crowded space – as well as a range of side dishes including rolled egg omelet, kamaboko fishcake and baked tofu.
Portable meals in Japan were well-developed by 1872, when a rail line between Tokyo and Yokohama opened and the country’s first train service chugged onto the scene. It didn’t take long for bento to make the leap into the railway carriage and to become ekiben.
Tracking Down Historic Rail Bentos
There are a few claimants to the title of Japan’s First Ekiben but the most widely accepted is the bento that made its debut at Utsunomiya Station, about 134km north of Tokyo Station, in 1885.
Consisting of two onigiri rice balls and two slices of pickled daikon radish in bamboo bark wrapping, this classic washoku combination went for 5 sen (an old currency unit equivalent to 1/100th of a yen). Given that you could get a serving of soba noodles for just 1 sen at the time, a 5-sen price tag signaled that this bento was a luxury, a special meal for a special occasion.
More than a century after the sale of that first ekiben – 2025 marks its 140th anniversary – train station bento retains that image of puchi zeitaku (プチ贅沢), a small extravagance.
The ekiben menu expanded along with Japan’s railway network. Sales of makunouchi ekiben began in 1889, followed by tai meshi (simmered bream on rice) in 1897, sandwiches in 1899 and unadon (grilled eel on rice) in 1909.
By this time, rail travelers could choose more than rice-based box meals – confectionery, fruit, tea and alcohol were also sold on the platforms.
It was more than a purchase; it was all part of the romance of the iron roads. For most people in that era, rail travel was a rare treat. It would have been a thrill just to ride on a steam locomotive and to hear it whistle as its wheels thundered over the tracks and the scenery whipped past.
But the pleasure was just beginning. At some point, the train would approach a station and, with steam billowing, come to a stop. You would stick your head through the nearest window, call one of the rambling vendors over and cast your eye over the wares in the wooden tray slung from his neck. You would pick an ekiben packed with regional specialties and, maybe, a pot of tea to wash it all down.
The vendor would hand you your purchases through the window. You would untie the string, study the wrapping paper – perhaps it might show a famous mountain nearby – and, finally, with anticipation high, remove the lid.
Ekiben was – and still is – more than something to eat on the train; it’s a Japanese food journey in a box.
But ekiben, like bento, reflects not only the seasons but also the conditions of the age and, when the country moved towards war, ekiben moved with it.
Military Ekiben
With the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894 and the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, railways were used to transport soldiers to training grounds or to the frontline.
Ekiben makers were flooded with orders from the military. Gunben (軍弁) boxes were born and the military remained the biggest buyer of ekiben until the end of World War II.
The exact contents of gunben are unknown but, given the worsening food shortages, military bentos would have become increasingly skimpy.
Ekiben makers tried to work around the strict controls on rice and other ingredients. Their wartime line-up includes sweet potato bento (two or three rationed sweet potatoes), mixed noodles bento (finely chopped udon noodles and vegetables) and bread with vegetables and konbu mixed into the dough to make up for the lack of wheat. This unlikely creation was called tetsudo pan: railroad bread.
The shortage of supplies continued for a few years after the war ended in 1945. Sales of rice-based ekiben resumed only around 1952, with the country’s rice shortage ending by the end of the decade. What followed was a period of high economic growth, fueled by industrial production and exports.
Boxed Meals as Food Tourism
Domestic travel boomed, aided by the introduction of the shinkansen bullet train in 1964. This created demand for ekiben, which entered a golden age as manufacturers came up with a wide range of gourmet bentos showcasing regional delicacies.
Even though there are now more than a thousand ekiben types available, most of them fall into one of five categories: meat and rice, seafood and rice, makunouchi (rice with a larger range of side dishes), sushi and sandwiches.
But these types of bento can also be found outside rail stations so what’s the difference between ekiben and bento?
There is no fixed and generally accepted definition of ekiben but the Ekiben Museum website, which claims to have documented more than 10,000, has devised its own. It considers a bento an ekiben if it meets the following criteria:
- A boxed meal sold at a train station
- Comes in a distinctive container and packaging
- Associated with a particular train station.
However, the website may consider other bentos ekiben if they are sold by railway operators as such or if they carry the Ekiben Mark, a logo introduced by the Central Committee of the Japanese Association of Railroad Station Concessionaries in 1988.
Even without knowing any of this, you can still develop a feel for what does or does not qualify as ekiben.
It all comes down to packaging and place. Supermarket and convenience store bento lean towards the generic but ekiben carry strong associations with a certain place, whether through the ingredients, container or cooking technique. This is usually signaled in the packaging, which will also be more elaborate.
Should you have the chance to travel Japan by train, get to the station early. Forage, not for fruit and nuts as the travelers of old did, but for a railway station bento experience. When it comes to rail travel in Japan, it may be less about the destination than it is about the journey – and the ekiben you discover along the way.
Written by Janice Tay