There are many kinds of cakes in Japan. One of the most regular cakes is shortcake which has cream and strawberries between and on sponges. Other common cakes in Japan are including Mont Blanc, a sponge cake covered with a piped mixture of chestnuts paste, fresh cream and sugar in a thin thread-like shape and cheese cakes which are made with various recipes including rare and baked.

It is easy to have cakes almost anywhere in Japan. Most Japanese restaurants and cafes have cakes on their dessert menu, and there are cake specialty shops in towns. Take outs from cake shops are also common. There are many cake specialty shops of famous pastry chefs at food sections in department stores. Moreover, convenience stores sell cakes which are so high quality and tasty that some of them are hot-selling items.

Because many Japanese people like cakes, many types of cakes set off booms. For example, Italian dessert tiramisu and mille crepe made with cream between layers of many crepes made big hits in the 90s. Pancakes topped with fresh cream and plenty of fruits became popular in 2010, and there were pancake specialty shops opened one after the other mainly in Harajuku, Omotesando and Aoyama in Tokyo.

At celebration, cake make an important role. In a wedding ceremony, a wedding cake is prepared and a bride and a groom cut the wedding cakes together as their first collaborative activity. Cakes are also essential for birthday parties. The same number of candles as the age of the birthday person are lit and the birthday person puffs out the candles is a familiar scene in Japan as well. At Christmas time, Japanese often eat cakes decorated with sugar confectionery of Santa Claus and fir tree.