Gelatin in Japanese sweets/food

Is gelatin used widely in Japanese sweets and other food products or are the vegetarian options (such as agar agar) more common? I love Japanese sweets but as a vegetarian don't want to eat anything including gelatin, and as a non-Japanese speaker find it difficult to check the ingredients used in different foods.

agar agar (called kanten, 寒天 in Japanese) is actually quite commonly used here, but there is no guarantee that in some sweets gelatin hasn't been used instead. I have also found that lard and fish extract is listed as an ingredient in items that you wouldn't necessarily expect to find them in, like pastries for example.

If you wish to be a strict vegetarian in Japan you will need to learn to read those words in Japanese and alseo to ask about them specifically at restaurants, bakeries etc, because vegetarianism is not well understood here and just asking "does this contain meat?" is likely to be answered with "no" even if there is lard or gelatin in the product.

Gelatin is very commonly used in Japan, often in products you might not expect such as yogurt, curry (all brands except one), and lots of cakes and pastries.

Despite being one of the pioneers of the macrobiotic diet, Japan on the whole has almost no concept of vegetarianism or veganism so unless you go to a specifically vegan restaurant, you should not trust that your food is animal product free.

And simply asking at a restaurant is no guarantee because again, the people don't really understand what this means so 99% of the time their responses will be incorrect.

Thanks for the info, I guess I just have to be more careful than I anticipated...