Meat is alien to traditional Japanese cuisine, but in the last century dishes using beef, pork and chicken have become a major part of the national diet. Beefburger and fried chicken ( kara-age ) fast-food outlets are just as common these days as noodle bars. The more expensive steak restaurants serving up dishes like sukiyaki (thin beef slices cooked in a soy, sugar and sake broth) and shabu-shabu (beef and vegetable slices cooked at the table in a light broth and dipped in various sauces) are popular treats.

Like sukiyaki and shabu-shabu , nabe (the name refers to the cooking pot) stews are prepared at the table over a gas or charcoal burner by diners who throw a range of raw ingredients (meat or fish along with vegetables) into the pot to cook. As things cook they're fished out, and the last thing to be immersed is usually some type of noodle. Chanko-nabe is the famous chuck-it-all-in stew used to beef up sumo wrestlers.

Other popular meat dishes include: tonkatsu , breadcrumb-covered slabs of pork, crisply fried and usually served on a bed of shredded cabbage with a brown semi-sweet sauce; and yakitori , delicious skewers of grilled chicken and sometimes other meats and vegetables. At the cheapest yakitori-ya , you'll pay for each skewer individually. Kushiage is a combination of tonkatsu and yakitori dishes, where skewers of meat, seafood and vegetables are coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried.