[4] Its natural range spans from Hokkaido to Kyushu in Japan,[12] southern parts of the Korean peninsula,[13] and Chinese mainland.

[16] Chemical analysis has revealed that the seeds contain remarkably high concentrations of sugar-modified derivatives (glucosides) of N-methylserotonin and N,N-dimethylserotonin, also known as bufotenin.

[18] Aridagawa, Wakayama produces a specialty variety called budō sanshō ('grape sansho'), which bears large fruits and clusters, rather like a bunch of grapes.

[19] The pulverized mature fruits ("peppercorns" or "berries") known as "Japanese pepper" or kona-zanshō (粉ざんしょう) are the standard spice for sprinkling on the kabayaki-unagi (broiled eel) dish.

[20] Finely ground Japanese pepper, kona-zanshō, is nowadays usually sold in sealed packets, and individual serving sizes are included inside heat-and-serve broiled eel packages.

The berries are also cooked with small fry fish and flavored with soy sauce (chirimen jako [ja]), a specialty item of Kyoto, since its Mount Kurama outskirts is a renowned growing area of the plant.

[8] In central and northeastern Japan, there is also a non-sticky rice-cake type confection called goheimochi, which is basted with miso-based paste and grilled, sometimes using the Japanese pepper as flavor additive to the miso.

Young leaves of the plant, called chopi-sun (초피순), are used as a culinary herb or a namul vegetable in Southern Korean cuisine.

The leaves are also eaten pickled as jangajji, pan-fried to make buchimgae (pancake), or deep-fried as fritters such as twigak and bugak.

Sometimes, chopi leaves are added to anchovy-salt mixture to make herbed fish sauce, called chopi-aekjeot.

In Japan, the thick wood of the tree is traditionally made into a gnarled and rough-hewn wooden pestle (surikogi), to use with suribachi.