Japan has traditionally been a country which used rice and fish as staples. One of the most famous dishes signifying this is sushi. From rice you can also make rice flour and make different kinds of rice cakes. A popular korean one (which I assume is available in Japan as well under a different name) is ddokboki. Link to recipe by Chef Wongy here. Japan also makes several sweets with rice, like mochi. However, it is quite hard to make something that resembles “bread” with rice flour.
My research takes me to find that Japan was first introduced to bread around the mid 16th-century, by Portugese sailors. – Sidenote: This is also why Japan calls bread “pan” ( パン ), which is similar to the portugese word for bread “pão”, or the french variant “pain”. – Needless to say, the culture around bread is very different in Japan compared to Europe. But that makes it even more exciting, I would say!
In fact, one of my favorite sweet breads comes from Japan. Japanese Milk Bread! I followed the recipe from Chef John (also known as Food Wishes) on youtube to make mine:
I served the finished bread with butter and cheese next to some instant noodles:
I think the proportions between my baking tin and the amount of dough was not great. The bread did not rise as much as I wanted it to (does it ever?), but the bread was delicious anyway.