Do YOU consider this the same as fast food?

Good points. I've heard borderline horror-stories from expats trying to find Euro-style or authentic whole-grain bread in Japan, in particular.

And yeah, here in the States it seems a lot more common to deep-fry tofu, which is health-wise arguably a much worse way to consume it than it's usually made in EA. Actually one of the reasons I love air-fryers is that they offer something of a healthier compromise, with much less oil typically required.

Yes - as long as it's served quickly after ordering.

I think the distinction you're looking for is between fast food and junk food.

I'm not sure if that's the only thing for me? I would feel strange saying I got "fast food" if I got a falafel from the halal food truck, or papusas from the stall at the farmers' market, even though they are inexpensive and served quickly? I could imagine a fast food karage or tempura place, but a noodle soup can't easily be carried out and eats slow enough that it would be strange in my dialect to refer to as "fast food."

That's "street food," which is just fast food without a permanent location.

Fast food gets bad press, like soda. The speed with which my order arrives doesn't make it good or bad and carbonated water isn't a problem.

I think this is probably true, though I'll have to poke at my dialect a bit to make sure, but when someone says we're getting fast food, I assume they mean fast food with a permanent location, and probably a drive thru. If you say this at an event we drove to with food trucks, I'll start walking to our car, not the food trucks.

Yeah that tracks.

What do you mean like soda? Unless you're talking about soda water and diet sodas. Soda is absolutely bad for you and deserves all the bad press. I get what you're saying about fast food. You can get healthy fast food, but as for soda, it's really only been more recently with brands like olipop and culture pop can you even start to make an argument that soda isnt explicitly bad for you .

We call those foods you mentioned as "junky foods" as that's still a concept in Japan too. It's usually pretty clear based on nutritional content, but the main reason is how sick you feel afterwards.

There can be healthier options in fast food as well as better ways to prepare karage and tempura to be less unhealthy. And no, none of that appears more or less healthier than American fast food to us, but fast food also includes chipotle and subway which are not quite as greasy as what you have in mind.

The ideal number of ingredients on a package is one.

Awesome, these sugar packets are superfoods!

Kind of, but I think a lot of people might view them more as take out as opposed to fast food.

I work in schools. About 20 years ago they banned soda sales at school, so they removed all of the carbonated beverages from the vending machine and replaced them with non-carbonated beverages with as much or more sugar.

If I'm not mistaken, ramen is kind of considered fast food in Japan. By American standards, I consider it kind of healthy.

I dont think thats an issue of soda getting to much bad press though, its more that other highly processed and sugary drinks didn't get the bad press as well.

You are not mistaken.