Cf. hamburgers being maybe 100 years old; tomato sauce being only put on pasta in the late 18th century; ‘standard Italian’ not being codified until the unification of Italy in the late 19th century (one reason why Italian-Americans perhaps say capisch instead of capisci? Some southern accents dropping the -i! [really, they’re languages——languages are just dialects with an army]), the food that we call kimchi today only popularly containing peppers starting in the 19th century; and the whole thing with car companies in the United States tearing up tram tracks and lobbying for jaywalking to be considered a crime!
But pizza would also be "modern"
Today's sushi is from 19th C. Edo.., allegedly one person, Hanaya Yohei
Is food.. "anti-Lindy"? (Maybe because innovations that are infectious tend to be universally beloved, quickly killing off their progenitors)
https://www.youngpioneertours.com/north-south-korean-kimchi/
Likewise, while Japanese cuisine is generally not spicy at all, the few outliers like mentaiko generally originate from the southern regions like Kyushu and Okinawa that traded with Korea & China.
(mustards are just more entrenched than peppers.)
Wasabi can compete with peppers on spiciness (imho)
Common condiment shichimi has pepper-- to-garishi, where the to- literally says "Tang (china)", meaning "foreign". And Sichuan pepper I think?
What then would be the native spice, "karashi"? Brown mustard..
That said, there are properly native pepper variants like shishito. And the unnamed one that is in kanzuri
https://youtube.com/shorts/1RoMOI8Hh-Q
(Sorry abt videoai, not mine)
'Real' Italian cuisine is without tomatoes (a new world crop) and ~without pasta, or any modern pizza with tomato sauce.