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Collapsed cakes and the price of perfection in Japan

Japanese consumers are used to demanding the best, but they might have to start paying more amid a labour crunch.

Japan‘s recent Christmas cake scandal shows that the country might be reaching the limits of its productivity gains as labour supply tightens, says the author.

PHOTO: @BAKUSINNOUUKA/X

Gearoid Reidy

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Compared with the chaos that has engulfed Japan in the opening days of 2024, the final days of 2023 seem like a halcyon age.

Before

an earthquake caused devastation across the Noto peninsula

and Japan Airlines (JAL) Flight 516

narrowly avoided disaster at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport,

the biggest news item that preoccupied the country was the great Christmas cake scandal. After some 800 strawberry shortcakes arrived at households across the country

damaged and misshapen,

executives of department store operator Takashimaya bowed in apology at a press conference carried on national television.

Collapsed cakes and the price of perfection in Japan

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