What is the difference between bread crumb and Japanese Panko? You can see it for yourself.
(Left: Bread crumbs. Right: Panko)
In Japanese, "pan" means bread (taken from French word, le pain), and "ko" means powder. In general, there is only super white bread in Japan, and Panko is made from super white bread, thus the color.
Compared to what generally known, "bread crumb" with brown colour, Panko is more coarse and not powderly as bread crumbs.
Panko is used in various cooking in Japan, but mostly for crumb for deep-frying and stuffing for meatballs.
Recipes using Panko can be found: