How are Italian, Japanese and North American Pizzas different?!

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Americas go for either thick or thin crust, New York or Chicago styles, more exotic non meat items, Italian pizza in Italy is pretty basic, not much cheese, simple tomato sauce, fresh herbs and olive oil before baking, I worked in Japan in the 1980's for a hotel chain and there it is an American base, with a sweeter more Asian inspired sauce, toppings can be different like squid, sea urchin, eggs/tamago an egg omelet like thing, picked ginger and plums, fried fish, shrimp even when cooked mayonnaise topped ones. I had one with squid it was nice but chewy.

I am from Canada and we like American style but we do more health toppings, whole wheat and gluten free crusts, less cheese, more veggies, tend to eat it as a snack not a meal.

Since pizza is essentially just a flat crust covered with "stuff you like" the "stuff" is going to vary depending on the location.

Italian pizza tends to be very simple - very little sauce, or even just a crushed tomato sort of smeared on the bread, fresh mozzarella an some basil - that's basically it. Originally it was a dish to use up leftovers, so whatever the chef had lying around was thrown on the crust, and baked.

American pizza comes in two basic varieties - the New York style, which keeps the same thin crust as the Italian, but uses more sauce, more cheese, and adds meat, vegetables, whatever. Then there's the Chicago style which is more like stuffed bread pie than anything else. In America, anything is fair game for being put on a pizza. There are now Korean restaurants that serve pizza with kim-chee on it, for instance. (it's quite good if you like spicy kim-chee!)

Japanese pizzas are based on the American pizza chains, but change out some ingredients based on local tastes. So, at the local Domino's in Tokyo, you can get corn on your pizza - it's a very popular topping. Then there's the seafood pizza which doesn't use any sauce, and is just covered with various bits of fish, squid and octopus. The fresh pizza is then sprinkled with shredded seaweed and drizzled with a Japanese style dipping sauce. If you've ever eaten Takoyaki, it's essentially like that - just in pizza form.

Although Italians invented Pizza and brought it to North America and other parts of the world, I as an Italian prefer the North American Pizza. In Italy, recently, the government had to step in in order to set minimum standards.
A typical Pizza menu in a restaurant in Italy lists about 30 different kinds of pizza, in each, the ingredients are basically the same, only in differing combinations. Italian commercial pizza offers very little or no meat, mainly fresh vegetables.
However, you can't beat a homemade pizza in Italy.

I have never had a Japanese pizza, so I will withhold comment.

Italian Pizza and North American pizza are closely related. In fact, it is Italian immigrants that are making most of the pizza in North America. Granted, America has created unique pizza in various parts of the country. Chicago, NY being the best known. But, the basic dough is the same. As in everything else American, we tend to overdo our toppings whereas Italian pizza is more subtle with the toppings.

I've never even heard of Japanese pizza, so I can't comment on that, but Italian and North American pizzas are actually quite different. My brother spent 6 weeks in Italy a few years ago and tried to order pepperoni pizza. They laughed at him. In Italy, when you order pizza, it's mainly cheese pizza. They have pepperoni and things like that, but they do not use them as toppings on pizza.

Here's Italian pizza: http://www.hickerphoto.com/data/media/3/…

American style pizzas: http://www.northamptontakeaway.co.uk/dis…
http://pics.hoobly.com/full/N4KPTQ78H3FU…
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e1C4oHC3XRw/Se…

Canadian pizza is similar to American pizza. I have tried some pizzas that contained goat cheese in British Columbia though.

Japanese style pizza: http://media.photobucket.com/image/japan…
http://www.japanfoodaddict.com/wp-conten…
There are tamer looking Japanese pizza available. But, those don't look that Japanese. LOL
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3579/3541… This one contained squid and fish roe. :D

never heard of a jap pizza. but italian is most likely good as that is where pizza originated. north american pizza doesn't really exist. it came from italy. if you mean the kind from dominoes, pizza hut, papa johns, little caesars, and all those other ones, then those are good too. and i think italians put more herbs and spices. INDIAN FOOD IS THE SPICIEST EVER!!!

American pizza's have much more oil than italian pizza and japanese pizza's have different types of meat, like instead of perperonni they use like this other meat

Italian pizza is much healthier generally made with fresh ingredients and not with all the cutting fillers