In Okinawa Prefecture, where the practice of eating rice had not begun until modern times as rice was not produced there due to the climate, there is still no custom of eating zoni today; while zoni is relatively popular in the Amami region of Kagoshima Prefecture, which used to belong to the same Ryukyu Kingdom as Okinawa.
気候的に米作に適さず、近代まで米食の習慣がなかった沖縄県には現在も雑煮を食べる風習はないが、同じ琉球王国に属する鹿児島県奄美地方においては比較的普及している。