Zauner started the band as a side project in 2013, when she was leading the Philadelphia-based emo group Little Big League.

Its critical and commercial success led Japanese Breakfast to sign with the record label Dead Oceans, which released the band's second and third studio albums: Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017) and Jubilee (2021).

[5] The second Japanese Breakfast release was June (2013), the result of a month-long project in which Zauner and Rachel Gagliardi recorded one song a day and posted them on the Tumblr blog rachelandmichelledojune.

[7][8] While in Oregon with her family in 2014, Zauner continued recording as Japanese Breakfast, starting with samples of music as a meditative exercise and "instant gratification".

In 2015, while working at an advertising agency, Zauner recorded her first studio album as Japanese Breakfast: Psychopomp, named for the mythological creature.

[10] She said her "dark and heavy-handed" record dealt with her mother's death, although she tried to make the music urgent and "sonically upbeat.

It depicts a girl going to a high school dance, where Zauner and her band, accompanied by fellow indie musician Leslie Bear, are playing a set.

[35][36] In 2019, Japanese Breakfast released two singles under the W Hotels music label: "Essentially" and a cover of the Tears for Fears song "Head over Heels."

[51] In mid-2022, Japanese Breakfast and Chicago-based Goose Island Brewery teamed up to produce a limited-edition lager named "Be Sweet" after the song.

The beer was sold at the Pitchfork Music Festival in July 2022; proceeds were donated to Heart of Dinner, a charity that helps elderly Asian-Americans who struggle with food insecurity in New York City.

[52] In October 2023, after the end of the Jubilee Tour, Zauner said she planned to move in December to Seoul, South Korea, for a year to work on a new album and a new book.

[53] The band's fourth album, For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women), was recorded at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, was produced by Blake Mills, and is slated for release by Dead Oceans on March 21, 2025.

Jubilee includes "In Hell", originally a bonus track on the Japanese deluxe edition of Soft Sounds.