Photos of Japanese kitchens abroad often show a pale wooden board under a gleaming knife. The board under most Japanese knives is plastic.
Plastic, mostly
Why not wood?
A wooden board is kinder to a thin edge, and that is why knife enthusiasts love them. If you choose one, plan to dry it well and look after it.
How many boards, and for what
Cleaning: bleach and a spray of alcohol
Haiter is a common brand of household chlorine bleach in Japan. Kitchen alcohol sprays are sold in supermarkets there for exactly this job.
The knife that goes with all this is usually a stainless santoku. Read why the santoku for how it became the household knife, or how Japanese home cooks care for a knife.
Questions people ask
Do Japanese people use wooden cutting boards?
Some do, mostly keen cooks. Our editor and most homes around them use plastic, because it dries quickly and can be bleached.
How many cutting boards does a Japanese home have?
Our editor's home has two plastic boards, one for meat and fish and one for everything else, plus a thin folding board for fruit.
How do Japanese homes clean cutting boards?
By hand with a sponge or in the dishwasher, with household chlorine bleach when stains show. After meat or fish, our editor wipes the board dry and sprays it with alcohol.
How we made this
Knife counts, lengths and shortlists come from our catalog: 6 stores that ship to the US and UK, checked on 23 Oct 2026. Notes from our editor, Shota Ando, come from recorded conversations, dated on each note. Text is drafted with AI from those two sources and reviewed before it is published.