Abstract The growing world population raises concerns about food security, with increasing demand for animal protein often impacting scarce resources like land, water and energy. Edible insects have been proposed as an alternative protein source to address this issue. The study aimed to compare acceptance of insects as food and its association with food neophobia among young adults in Malaysia and Japan. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1954 subjects, comprising 1,071 Malaysians and 883 Japanese young adults. Subjects completed an online questionnaire on sociodemography, Food Neophobia Scale, and acceptance of insects as food. Chi-square, Wilcoxon signed rank post-hoc and Mann-Whitney U tests were used for statistical analysis. Only 9.2% were willing to eat insects as food and 6.5% were ready to adopt eating insects in daily life. A higher proportion of Malaysians (10.5%) was willing to accept insects as food than Japanese (7.6%, ). However, Japanese (9.5%) were more ready to adopt eating insects in daily life than Malaysians (3.9%, ). Most subjects in both countries were in the neutral category of food neophobia, with no significant difference between countries. In Malaysia, the main reason for willingness to eat insects was food safety (11.5%), while in Japan it was caloric and nutritional value (17.8%). The main reason for unwillingness to eat insects in both countries was appearance (Malaysia: 17.1%; Japan: 27.9%). There was a significant association () between the acceptance of insects as food and the category of food neophobia, with lower acceptance associated with higher neophobia or vice versa. In conclusion, the acceptance of insects as food is low among young adults in Malaysia and Japan. A strategic marketing approach tailored to the reasons for acceptance could effectively promote entomophagy in both countries. Further studies should focus on transforming insects into more palatable forms.