Japanese consumers forced to scrimp, bargain hunt as food inflation bites

TOKYO – Inflation in Japan is running at 4 per cent, but Ms Taemi Komiyama finds that the cost of feeding her family is escalating much faster than that. The 35-year-old housewife is paying 50,000 yen (S$450) a month for food, up 25 per cent from her budget in 2024.

The prices of staples such as rice, eggs and cabbage have all surged in the past 12 months.

She and her husband have stopped eating out to save money, and she is considering rejoining the workforce to deal with higher costs. In the meantime, she is cutting back on fresh produce. 

“Fresh vegetables are expensive, so I try to buy frozen ones,” said Ms Komiyama, as she shopped at the discount supermarket OK in the Asakusa neighbourhood of Tokyo. 

The higher cost of food is forcing people in Japan to scrimp and bargain hunt as their purchasing power drops.

In 2024, Japanese companies increased salaries, but this has not been enough to offset the rise in prices. Real wages in 2024 decreased by 0.3 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

There is little relief in sight. Prices for about 20,000 items in the food sector are predicted to rise in 2025, far exceeding the number of price increases in 2024, according to the Teikoku Databank. 

Companies are also struggling.

Skylark Holdings, which operates the family restaurant chain Gusto, expects that inflation will push down operating profits by 11.2 billion yen in the current fiscal year.

The company estimates that the cost of ingredients will triple to 5.1 billion yen from 1.7 billion yen. Rice in particular is expected to account for a large proportion of this, at 2.2 billion yen. 

The outcry among households and companies poses a challenge for Japanese policymakers who had wanted inflation badly for years to revive growth.

Voters punished Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the 2024 general election over his limited price relief measures, prompting the premier to extend energy subsidies.

Food hits a sore spot for policymakers as the nation increasingly relies on imports, whose prices are dictated by global events like the war in Ukraine, while domestic supplies are affected by factors beyond Tokyo’s control, like climate change.

And the cheap yen has made imports far more expensive.

Japan’s food self-sufficiency, measured in calories, has steadily dropped to below 40 per cent in fiscal year 2023, down from 50 per cent about three decades ago, meaning that the nation relies on imports for the majority of its needs.

The cost of rice has risen so much that the government

will sell 210,000 tonnes of the grain from its emergency supplies

to address record prices. A standard 5kg bag of rice cost 3,688 yen as at Jan 27 – 82 per cent more than a year ago.

Bank of Japan (BOJ) governor Kazuo Ueda said in February that he will keep food inflation in mind when conducting monetary policy, as it may not be temporary and could affect consumers’ inflation expectations.

Still, the BOJ has been far more cautious about raising interest rates than its global peers that aggressively hiked borrowing costs to cool inflation.

The central bank is focusing on a core price growth figure that does not include fresh food prices and is currently much lower than overall inflation. That has created a disconnect between policymakers and the man in the street.

Higher food prices can reduce overall consumption when people choose to save elsewhere by cutting back on large expenses such as replacing cars and home appliances or going on trips. This in turn becomes a drag on the economy.

Pan Pacific International Holdings, which operates discount store Don Quijote, is trying to reduce prices in real terms, even as the cost of purchasing goods and labour increase. 

“The complexity of the situation is completely different from that of the time of deflation,” said Pan Pacific president Naoki Yoshida at an earnings press conference in February. 

Ms Keiko Yano, a 77-year-old pensioner who lives by herself, is feeling the pinch. She works part-time to earn extra money and has seen her hourly wage go up by only 10 yen to 20 yen.

She is paying more for vegetables, eggs and electricity. She used to allow herself the luxury of a sushi meal once a month but has now pared back to every other month.

“I’m not living in luxury to begin with,” said Ms Yano, “I can’t save any more.” BLOOMBERG