By comparison, the Japanese style is lighter in weight and taste, slightly drier, and has a firmer outer layer (including top cookie crust) that resists flaking, unlike its Hong Kong counterpart, whose top cookie crust tends to flake easily.

The Hong Kong version is also moister and is generally soft on the outside and inside, with a stronger butter flavor.

[2] It is called that because the grid or net-like pattern of the crispy surface looks like the skin of some melons.

Though not originally melon-flavored, it has become popular for manufacturers to actually add melon flavoring to melonpan.

In parts of the Kansai, Chūgoku, and Shikoku regions, a variation with a radiating line pattern is called "sunrise", and many residents of these regions call even the cross-hatched melon pan "sunrise".