Food for Specified Health Uses (FOSHU) can have beneficial effects on health when consumers correct their lifestyle appropriately. However, it is not clear whether consumers recognize the characteristics of FOSHU and use it appropriately. To address this issue, a questionnaire investigation was conducted. This revealed that most consumers took FOSHU to maintain their health, although a proportion of them did so for prevention or treatment of disease. FOSHU is appropriately labeled to indicate the correct daily intakes and mode of intake. About 60% of users followed these directions, but 20% did not, and the remainder were unaware of these recommendations. In this situation, only 23.4% of users gained beneficial effects from FOSHU. Secondary analysis showed that 30.2% of users who changed their dietary habit, 17.0% who changed their exercise habit, and 10.1% who did not change anything received beneficial effects from FOSHU. In addition, some users on medication used FOSHU that had similar health claims to medicines. This investigation confirmed the inappropriate usage of FOSHU, especially by patients and individuals on medication. These results suggest that consumers do not understand the characteristics of FOSHU, and should be educated about the appropriate use of FOSHU.