Although karaage can be with other ingredients, mostly chicken is used and it is a Japanese version of fried chicken. The chicken is marinated and seasoned with flour or potato starch before deep fried in oil.
The difference between karaage and tempura is that tempura is coated with dough but karaage is not. Then, although chicken tempura exists but chicken karaage is much more popular dish in Japan. On the other hand, prawn karaage is extremely rare than prawn tempura. Then, also tempura is not marinated with soy sauce or any other spices except salt can be inside the dough.
The difference between karaage and western fried chicken is that you use chop stick to eat the karaage but Japanese use hands to eat the fried chicken.
Karaage can be provided at restaurants as appetizers or as main course called KARAAGE TEISHOKU. If the menu is written as TEISHOKU, please consider that the chicken will be served with rice and miso soup.