Do YOU consider this the same as fast food?

Bread isn't really a staple in Japan, even in it's white form. It's not something that you just have in the house all the time. They won't make a sandwich at home, they may purchase and use it for toast but I don't think I've ever seen a Japanese person eat more than one slice at breakfast before. Even the bread at most stores is sold as 4-6 slices only rather than a full loaf. https://mel.jfconline.com.au/cdn/shop/files/37170.png?v=1748918723&width=900

Totally depends on how long it takes to make and serve. If a place could somehow deliver beef Wellington to you in 2 minutes at a drive-thru window, I would call it fast food, but this would not redefine all beef Wellington as fast food. You're conflating "fast" and "junk".

not really fast, but they are indeed quite unhealthy as typical fast foods (like burgers) imo

Personally, when I talk about "fast food" I'm almost always talking about those industrial corporate types, not like a regular sandwich, pizza, or even "fast casual" burger shop.

I think McDonald’s kicked off term “fast food”. Street vendors selling hotdogs and other stuff predated them, so your definition is also what I’ve gone by.

It’s not something that you just have in the house all the time.

This is just plain wrong. A lot of Japanese have a slice of toast at home for breakfast. They make sandwiches for the kids or themselves as well.

https://www.cross-m.co.jp/report/trend-eye/20260325breakfast More people eating bread for breakfast than rice (~60% v ~40%)

Even the bread at most stores is sold as 4-6 slices only rather than a full loaf.

Kinda, but there are multiple reasons for this. Japanese shop way more frequently, have less storage space, have housing without always-on central AC, and they don't necessarily need more.

There are plenty of stores that sell loaves with 10-12 slices, though, or whole baguettes, etc. I mean regular grocery stores, not fancy ones.

I'm confused about why you would include yakitori in your examples. It's mostly just grilled meat.

I mean there is a big difference between ramen in general and things like "cup noodle".

One serving of cup noodle has about 50% of your daily sodium and very little nutrional value. I think the issue is that most people don't think of things like cup noodle as the "fast" form of ramen.

Good point. Funny, I was completely forgetting about the instant ramen, even tho I used to live on that stuff in college.

Ya but ramen is pretty unhealthy overall, it’s a fatty broth and lots of carbs. Usually Chashu which is pork belly, very fatty. Sometimes add karage to share, or add rice to the broth at the end. Lack of fiber or veggies, etc.

It’s by most accounts, pretty unhealthy.
Lack of fiber, high calorie, high carb, high fat meal. I’d put them at around the same as a lot of fast food.

To be clear, A staple food is something that provides a significant portion of the calories (or other nutrients) in an overall diet.

A single slice of bread for breakfast, which while popular as you point out, simply doesn't come up to that level. From your own link only 60% of respondents even eat breakfast every day, and 20% don't eat it at all.

The whole statement I made was that bread just isn't consumed in the quantities or for the purposes that we have it for in North America, so that's why trying to find things like Whole Wheat bread is so difficult.

https://thebrotbox.com/blogs/news/how-much-bread-americans-really-eat?srsltid=AfmBOorJ1fKntXLJgCZ0gaAk5lXocnTJUow9wy7AY7g0fFlXZUS3dh5v

Americans eat on average 37 to 53 pounds of bread per year, or around 50-80 loaves. Around two slices of bread per person per day. Extrapolating from the Japanese situation, their average is probably closer to 1/3rd of that value.