Definitely the latter. Source: vegetarian for 10 years, when living in Europe and USA. Pescatarian since 1997 after moving to Japan. I could be vegetarian now

Definitely the latter. Source: vegetarian for 10 years, when living in Europe and USA. Pescatarian since 1997 after moving to Japan. I could be vegetarian now, if I chose, but it would be harder than in those other two regions. However, it's easier to be pescatarian in Japan with just a little language. Don't eat ramen or gyousa though. There'll almost certainly be pork, even if they claim otherwise - what do they know? Other common dishes such as soba, udon, tendon should always be fine unless obviously not.