Although potato chips are popular in Japan, Japanese traditional rice crackers are still loved by Japanese. On the other hand, normal crackers are not so much eaten in Japan as in Europe or in US.
As like famous sake distilleries are located where there are nice spring water or rice fields, major rice cracker companies are located in Niigata prefecture, which is a major rice product prefecture in Japan.
Rice cracker can be divided into 3 types. First type is senbei; flat, round rice cracker. It can be savory or sweet. The second type is okaki, which is not round, smaller but thicker than senbei. The last type is arare, which is smaller than okaki. Japanese style rice cracker made in Europe is usually the third type, arare. Not like potato chips, usually there are several smaller packages of arare inside the package. In case of potato chips, you have to open the package and pour into a bowl when yiou have a visitor, but in case of arare, you just can pull out the smaller package and put it on a plate. Then, if the visitor did not open the package, you can put it back or keep it somewhere else.
Potato chips can match with beer or carbonated soft drink but Japanese rice crackers do not match with coke or 7UP. The best combination is with green tea.