I don't know about 'staples or delicacies', but I miss citron tea (Korean) when I'm sick -it comes in a jar and looks a bit like orange marmalade, and I haven't found anything better for a sore throat (pour boiling water over a couple of spoonfuls and sip)... I loved picking up a box of new tea when I would stop into the market too...

green tea kit kats, hello pandas, mooncakes, trainer chopsticks (for kids), thai iced tea kit maybe? an origami book and some washi paper would be a cute addition too.

seaweed crackers or roasted seaweed squares, nuts, genmaicha tea, Japanese dried salted plum

Good soy sauce and sesame oil are always a plus. If the basket is going local and they like spicy things, then I would suggestions a small jar of kimchi. Growing up in a Korean household, we always had that as well other staples like dried seaweed, gochichang (spicy red pepper paste), different teas (green, corn, barley), garlic, etc. Also good would be a jar of bul go gi marinate otherwise known as Korean bbq. Super good on beef, chicken, and pork.

O -be careful about MSG if any of your family is sensitive to it ('makes some people sick like whoa!)...

POCKY.

With all the sweet stuff you get over the holidays, Pocky is a nice treat without making you feel too guilty.

Depends on how adventurous they are. You get them some staples like: soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil and chili paste, but I am unsure if those items would travel well.

Otherwise, cans of thai curry and coconut milk, wasabi peas, several different types of tea, instant miso soup and sweet glutinous rice.

If you want healthy, generally avoid the crackers/snacks, ramen, sweets and chips aisles. And beware of mochi as some brands don'to even include glutinous rice in their recipe. A quality soy sauce or sesame oil is a good idea, or you could build 'make your own sushi' packages (rice vinegar, nori sheets, rolling mats, sushi rice, toasted sesame, panko, kewpie mayo, etc.). Some good teas (bags or tins, not the prebottled, overly sweetened stuff). Miso is also great.

I'd choose my favorite recipe, one I make regularly, and then send it along with the ingredients to make it.

I did a sushi-making gift box for a friend's birthday once. The edible and non-edible necessities and then a book of recipes I found in the discount section of Barnes & Noble. It was a hit.

I love the genmai cha tea (one favorite brand is My Green Tea) from Uwajimaya in Seattle, and I swear it keeps me from getting colds!

sesame oil, miso, maybe gochujang with a recipe for bibimbap?

Regarding genmaicha (aka popcorn or brown rice tea), I'd first make sure the person knows what they're getting into. To a lot of people genmaicha smells like a field doused with cow dung/something fermenting (and not in a good way). :)

pocky!

http://theactorsdiet.wordpress.com/2010/10/27/pickles-n-pocky/

For new years, Japanese places will be selling pre-made osechi (foods to eat for the New Year). It's usually mochi, various semi-preserved seafood options, candied chestnuts, kuro mame (sweetened black soy beans), and prepared vegetables. The idea of osechi is that you make everything ahead and don't have to cook for a few days. If you have a Japanese food fan on your list, see if you can get an osechi box sent from the store.

Living away from home and Asian supermarkets, I often ask my mom to ship over stuff every once a while. let me list some of my favorite that are also light and cheap:
dry shredded pork - they are awesome over porridge and rice
Furikake - it's seaweed/sesame flake toppings use to make onigiri (aka rice ball)
okonomi sauce - a sauce kind of taste like soy sauce but it's not. used to dip okonomiyaki (japanese style veggie pancake)
arare - also japanese style soy sauce based rice cracker
DARS dark chocolate - it's harder to find (at least for my mom....) but it tastes great.
dry seaweed - perfect to add to instant noodles to make it healthier. one small handful can expand into a hug bowl!

you can look these item up on google image, and see if your local market has them.

hope you family will be happy when they receive the gifts. Happy Holiday!!

We bring powdered coconut milk/cream with us when we go camping, found in our local asian market. Lightweight and inexpensive!

I do like Soya sauce and vermicelli. Also If I would receive an asian goodies gift basket I would like to find inside some rice vinegar and some sake.

i agree with the pocky recommendation--always a favorite with kids and adults. fruity japanese gummy candies are also really popular and the tubes of chocolate covered gummies are unusual and fun. a good option for a savory treat are the packets of small seaweed (nori) squares--you can eat them like chips--or chinese-style beef/pork jerky.

I would put together an afternoon/evening tea set with rice crackers - sweet (usually called senbei) or savory, or wasabi peas and green tea.

I'm not sure if they qualify as healthy...but a friend of mine loves ramen noodles and doesn't live near an asian grocery store so I packaged up a whole bunch of weird and wacky instant noodle flavors and shipped them off. It was a hit. Some of the unusual candies and snacks are fun, too.

I just love this idea! Especially for people who don't have access to a good asian grocery.

If they cook Japanese food, throw in some dried bonito flakes and dried kombu. Dashi broth is a staple in Japanese cooking.

Konyaku is a zero calorie substitute for noodles.

A lot of suggestions here are interesting, but far from "healthy". Pocky is no more guilt-free than an Oreo cookie and KitKats in Japan, while peculiar, are just as unhealthy as any other KitKat around the world. Japanese snacks are lower in sugar and higher in fat than American ones. That means they are sometimes more caloric, but less sweet. I know this because I've written a Japanese snack review blog since 2008 and investigated a wide range of such things.

The blog is here if you want to use it for reference:
http://japanesesnackreviews.blogspot.com/

As for suggestions, I'd go with dried yuzu, a type of Japanese citrus fruit which is delicately sweetened in its dried form and nutritious. I'd also consider soba boro, delicately sweet buckwheat cookies which have a high concentration of egg. There are also some very nifty varieties of sembei (I've reviewed 59 of them so far), and though they aren't exactly "healthy", they are better for you than the average corn or potato chip. One of my favorites is brown sugar sembei. It's supposed to have essential amino acids in the brown sugar, but I'm not sure if I believe there's enough to qualify them as a health food, but they are tasty and relatively reasonable when it comes to calories. My favorite is Sanko Seika W (double) cream brown sugar sembei. I also adore kinako sembei and they are even lighter than the brown sugar ones.

It's important to remember being Japanese or using unconventional flavors does not make food healthy. Much Japanese cuisine is healthy, but packaged food in general is no better here than it is in other countries. It's just different.