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The story
Pouring miso soup over rice — nicknamed “nekomanma” (literally “cat’s rice”) — is something many people were scolded for as kids for having bad table manners. But Nagatanien has now turned it into an actual product: Cup-Style Asage Rice, built around its long-running instant miso soup “Asage.” The move left some people on social media uneasy, with comments like “doesn’t this feel a little rude?” Over on 5ch, the thread lit up with surprise at a stat claiming 80% of people have already done this, a side debate on whether it’s safe to feed to cats and dogs, and comparisons to ochazuke (rice in tea) and zōsui (rice porridge).
2026-10-30 08:10 Oricon News
“Nekomanma” — putting rice into miso soup — is bad manners. Plenty of people heard that as kids. Now a major food maker has taken that “taboo” and turned it straight into a product: Nagatanien’s new Cup-Style Asage Rice.
The cup rice, which pairs the long-running instant miso soup “Asage” with rice, prompted puzzled reactions on social media: “Isn’t this… nekomanma?” and “It just feels like bad manners.”
Source: oricon.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Might just be some Tokyo-centric sensibility.
Same where I'm from — it's just seen as one way to make stale rice taste good again.
There's probably not much info about it online, so AI might end up learning a skewed version of it.
Wait, is it even okay to feed them this?
If you're asking whether they'll eat it, sure they will — my cat loved it.
It's bad for a cat's kidneys though. Honestly it's bad for human kidneys too lol
Back in the day there weren't as many "cat-kidney" obsessives warning about this, and pet food wasn't as developed, so dumping leftover soup over rice was just normal dog/cat food.
People used to casually feed pets salty dried fish like mejashi (dried baby sardines) too — stuff that would get you called a cat abuser if you did it today.
The dog I used to have loved it.
Never was that into dog food.
I mean, it's basically just stew over rice lol
More like — there's actually 20% who haven't?!
If you've got rice and miso soup, of course you do this! It's normal!
I'm more shocked that 80% actually do this.
Never even occurred to me to try it.
Though TKG (raw egg over rice) used to get called a gross way to eat too, and now it's mainstream enough to have its own specialty shops, so I guess people can do what they want with miso soup rice too.
Not something I'd pay money to eat out, though.
They always want whatever the humans are eating.
Lately I've just come to think as long as they live happily, that's enough.
Only after mastering ojiya (rice porridge) do you find the entrance to the path of nekomanma.
"Know the miso, but know not the rice, and in a hundred battles you shall never be safe" — if you're still quoting lines like that, you're still a novice.
Pretty much anything goes in it except sausages.
I feel like strawberries just don't go with salty stuff — even strawberries in curry make me want to kill someone.
Also green peppers are a personal no for me.
Nekomanma = rice with bonito flakes
"Inu-manma" (doggo's rice) = rice with miso soup
Back then there was no internet, and TV barely covered pet health or diet info,
so most people were raising pets with zero knowledge.
My parents used to give the dog miso soup rice too, and thinking back, there was probably onion in it sometimes.
Honestly, onion in a dog's food isn't something to panic over for a one-off or two, like a bit in a hamburger patty or miso soup.
It's not like pouring salt on a slug — the dog doesn't just dissolve the instant it eats it.
Though technically slugs don't "dissolve" from salt either — it's more that the salt yanks the water out of them fast and they shrivel up.
Too much salt, and it's easy for them to get indigestion from it.
I used to do miso soup rice all the time.
I couldn't get moving in the morning until 7,
so with no time to spare, it was the only option…
It's good, right?
Even furikake (rice seasoning) on rice was banned in my house.
Wait, bad for humans too?!
Even if you eat the rice and miso soup separately, doesn't it all just mix together in your stomach anyway?
Salt content.
It's actually been dropped from hospital meal menus for that reason.
they'll probably start selling ramen-broth rice next lol
You know there are guys at ramen shops who finish the noodles and then dump rice into the broth, right?
They say onions are bad for dogs, but for my dog at 35 kg, it'd take about 3 whole onions before it's actually a dangerous amount.
So if a dog accidentally eats a small bit of onion, there's no need to panic that much.
Rice with miso soup is the dog version.
I can't accept them just slapping the "nekomanma" name on this.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
This particular product stands out for pairing Nagatanien’s long-running instant miso soup “Asage” with rice, and the article reports that confused reactions appeared on social media after launch. Opinions split in the thread over whether miso-soup rice feels off-putting at all — some guessed that people from urban areas are more likely to find it strange, while plenty of others said they grew up with it and never thought twice. The term “nekomanma” itself is contested too, with some holding it means rice with bonito flakes and others insisting it means rice with miso soup, so there’s no settled definition. The discussion also spread to how giving dogs and cats leftovers like miso soup or food containing onion — once common — has shifted toward being discouraged today because of salt content and poisoning risk. As with TKG (raw egg on rice) and ochazuke, there’s precedent for eating styles once seen as crude being rehabilitated once someone turns them into an actual product. </analysis>
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*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Business News+) thread “[Nekomanma] The “Miso Soup Rice” You Got Scolded for as a Kid — Turns Out 80% Have Done It: The Product Design That Overturned “Bad Manners”.”
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