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Lawson’s Chicken in Japan is a ‘clucking’ good reason to visit the Land of the Rising Sun. Putting the fun into kara-age kun, virtually every visitor to the Lawson convenience store in Japan will have tried this classic fried chicken nugget snack at some point.
Convenience store chicken in Japan is big business, with all the big Japanese chains like 7-Eleven, Family Mart, Daily Yamazaki and Lawson’s stocking delicious chicken / karaage in their hot counters.
Despite so many counter choices, chicken remains the number 1 top selling hot convenience store food in Japan.
After much ‘research’ (hard work but delicious) and trying countless chicken bites and karaage, we think that Lawson is the best convenience store chicken nugget in Japan.
From prices to flavours, here is the ultimate guide to Lawson’s kara-age kun fried chicken nuggets in 2024.
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Japanese Convenience Store Culture
As of 2024, there are around 55,000 convenience stores in Japan – wow!
Of these, the biggest Japanese convenience store chain is 7-Eleven with 27,000 stores in 2024. The second biggest convenience store chain in Japan is Family Mart with 16,000 stores and then Lawson is third with over 14,000 stores.
Often open 24 hours a day, pretty much every visitor to Japan has at some stage dived into a 7-Eleven Japan convenience store for a quick bite of fried chicken or some bao buns – these stores are also known as a ‘konbini’ in Japan.
As you can imagine, with all these stores open 24 hours a day, that is a lot of karaage fried chicken every day. And a lot of people swear by Family Mart Famichiki as the best hot snack in Japan – although we will also state the case for Lawson shortly…
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How much are Lawson’s Kara-age Kun Chicken Nuggets in Japan?
Karaage chicken in Lawson and other convenience stores is pretty cheap. As of 2024, a pack of karaage chicken nuggets usually containing five pieces of chicken is 220 Yen (or 238 Yen including tax) – about 48 Yen a chicken nugget.
This means the price of a box of Lawson’s fried chicken nuggets in Japan is about £1.25, $1.60 USD or 1.50 Euros – now that is some cheap chicken nuggets (or should that be ‘cheep cheep’ – cos its chicken…sorry not sorry).
Special / limited edition fried chicken at Lawson’s usually costs a little more, around 240 Yen plus tax.
Each pack of Lawson’s fried chicken karaage nuggets are served as five pieces in a cardboard carton containing a wooden pick, plus a cute cartoon character on the outside.
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The cult of Lawson’s Kara-age Kun Chicken Nuggets
Such is the popularity of Lawson’s chicken in Japan, you are able to buy cartoon chicken / rooster themed merchandise in some branches of Lawson.
We think the Lawson’s rooster name is actually ‘Kara-age kun’ (very literal!).
We bought a Lawson’s chicken keyring featuring the packaging box, plus you can even get Lawson’s chicken gachapon toys. There have even been colossal Lawson rooster cartoon chicken plushies / cuddly toys made by Taito. Sugoi!
Such is cult of Lawson’s cartoon chicken, they even released a Lawson chicken character shaped teriyaki bun.
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What are the Lawson’s Fried Kara-age Kun Chicken Nugget Flavours / Karaage Choice
So what cheap konbini karaage choices are there? Try saying that after several sakes BTW…
Lawson’s has a core line of fried chicken flavours plus it often does seasonal flavours every month (more on this later).
The standard Lawson’s fried chicken karaage flavours are:
- Original chicken AKA Regular
- Cheese chicken AKA Cheese
- Spicy chicken AKA Red
- Lemon chicken
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Lawson’s Chicken Nuggets Special / Seasonal Flavours
We spent several months traversing Japan (and yep, we will be returning regularly) – during that time, we saw how big the fried chicken promotions and advertisements were. There is big money to be made in convenience store fried chicken.
Every time a new karaage fried chicken flavour comes out from Lawson it is usually accompanied with a big TV and outdoor poster campaign, plus big signs in the window describing the new limited edition karaage chicken flavour (or flavours) and the short amount of time it is available.
Seriously, you’ve got to get in quick to get your fried chicken fix! Many seasonal fried chicken flavours sell out on the first day so you have to search lots of stores if you want to try a certain type.
Some of the special edition / seasonal Kara-age Kun Fried Chicken flavours we found in branches of Lawson Japan were:
- Fried chicken with ‘melty’ or ‘grown up cheese’ (this was in fact blue cheese – quite an acquired taste and not one of our favourites)
- Fried chicken gratin
- Fried chicken spicy cod roe and mayonnaise – this was a special sakura limited edition in pink packaging
- Fried chicken with green onion oil and ginger
- Fried chicken Horinishi black smoked spice or white smoked spice
- In 2023, Lawson’s launched a ‘Legend of Zelda’ flavor fried chicken – which was basically spicy pepper or Pokapoka Kusa no Mi (which means “toasted spicy grass seeds” in Japanese).
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Lawson’s EruChiki
Although we’ve focused on Kara-age Kun Fried Chicken which is the biggest seller, all konbinis in Japan also sell breaded chicken cutlets. These have various names but it would appear each convenience store has their own take:
- Lawson’s EruChiki
- Family Mart’s FamiChiki
- 7-Eleven’s NanaChiki
Unlike karaage kun fried chicken, this generally isn’t seasonally flavoured and comes in original or spicy – a piece of Lawson’s Eruchiki fried chicken costs around 214 Yen plus tax.
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Fried Chicken Nuggets in Japan convenience stores – Lawson’s vs 7-Eleven vs Family Mart
There is SO much debate about which is the best konbini fried chicken / karaage in Japan – obviously it is down to personal taste but we would rate Lawson’s as the King of Karaage (note to self – this would make a great name for a Japanese restaurant reality TV show).
Lawson was the clear winner for the best convenience store chicken as it was always the most juicy and moist, and the special flavours were never that overpowering (well, apart from the blue cheese/ ‘grown up cheese’ limited edition one).
For us, 7-Eleven nuggets were always a bit dry (like it had been out for a long time) whilst Family Mart karaage chicken was quite greasy. That said, many rave about how amazing Family Mart Famichiki – so dear Plan My Japan reader, only you can decide!
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Chicken Nugget Controversy at Lawson’s Prices
Everyone loves karaage fried chicken and Lawson knows how popular it is. Alas, in 2022, after selling karaage kun fried chicken at the same price since it was introduced in 1986, fried chicken prices were increased.
The price of the five-pack nuggets increase by 10% to 238 Yen in mid May 2022 (including tax) – but this is still a cheap price to pay for Lawson’s delicious crispy chicken.
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Other things to know about Lawsons Kara-age Kun Chicken Nuggets
- Katy Perry is a somewhat ‘fan’ of Lawsons chicken – she appeared on Japanese TV show ‘Sukkiri’ in 2018 as part of her ‘Witness’ tour in Japan and was filmed (possibly forced) eating lots of Lawson karaage nuggets – nom nom nom!
- Lawson’s “Kara-age Kun” went into outer space in 2020 when astronaut Soichi Noguchi took some up to the International Space Station. A special freeze-dried version was produced and delivered by a SpaceX shuttle – who needs UberEats?
- Lawson launched a healthier low carb chicken version in 2022, called the ‘tanchiki’ – if it ain’t fried, we don’t want to know!
Did you like our Lawson Karaage Kun Fried Chicken Guide? Are you part of the cult of Japanese convenience store chicken? And did we miss any Lawson karaage chicken flavours? Please hit us up in the comments.
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