From Setsuko Yoshizuka,
Your Guide to Japanese Food.
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Japanese sweets are called wa-gashi in Japanese, and western-style sweets are called yo-gashi. Common ingredients for wa-gashi are rice flour, azuki (red beans), and sugar. Butter and milk are rarely used in wa-gashi cooking, so wa-gashi tends to be lower in fat than yo-gashi. Wa-gashi can be very sweet, so it goes well with strong green tea.

Anko (sweet red beans) is a typical ingredient in wa-gashi. It is used as filling for manju (steamed cake), dorayaki (pancakes with anko filling), taiyaki (carp shaped cake), and so on. Also, anko can be eaten with mochi (rice cake), such as shiruko (sweet rice cake soup). Here is a recipe for anko. Other popular wa-gashi are yokan (sweet beans jello) and daifuku (sweet rice cake). There are different kinds of yokan and daifuku depending on the fillings.

Traditional Japanese Sweets:

Yokan Recipe

Daifuku Recipe

Kushidango Recipe

Dorayaki Recipe

Daifuku Recipe

Anmitsu Recipe

Azuki Shiratama Recipe