▼ Family Mart 115 yen and 106 grams Lawson 115 yen and 113 grams 7-Eleven 115 yen and 119 gramsĪnd the Sockeye Salmon, which is labelled as “cured” in the Lawson and 7-Eleven varieties. Next up, let’s take a look at the “ Sea Chicken Mayonnaise”, as Lawson calls it, or “ Tuna Mayonnaise” as it’s known at Family Mart and 7-Eleven.

▼ (Left to right): Family Mart 115 yen (US$1.01) and 102 grams (3.6 ounces) Lawson 116 yen and 99 grams 7-Eleven 115 yen and 102 grams Visually, all of the rice balls looked quite different, but the price and weight of each one (without the packaging and seaweed) were pretty similar. So let’s take a look at the cross-sections of all the convenience store rice balls, starting with the plum-filled ones, which all contain the acclaimed Nanko Ume plum variety from Kishu, modern-day Wakayama Prefecture, although the 7-Eleven variety uses aged plums. The varieties Mr Sato purchased were: Plum, Sea Chicken, Salmon, Spicy Cod Roe, and Kelp. All of them were priced in the 100-yen (US$0.88) range, and to really assess them properly, Mr Sato removed their seaweed wrappings and sliced them vertically through their centres. ▼ A beautiful sight for any rice ball lover! So he picked up five rice balls from each chain, all with the same fillings, to see how they fared next to each other.

This year, Mr Sato decided to repeat the experiment, but this time with convenience store onigiri. Last year, we verified the contents of all the sandwiches being sold by Japan’s top three convenience store chains - Lawson, Family Mart, and 7-Eleven - by opening them up and examining their insides. Mr Sato gives us his verdict, and stumbles upon the Onigi Remix - a new way to combine them and eat them all!

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