Tokyo – Ramen is an affordable comfort food in Japan, where a bowl of warm noodles in hearty broth rarely costs more than 1,000 yen, or about $6.80. It’s a quick and reliable meal during lunch breaks at work, for hungry teenagers after school, and for office workers catching a late train home.
But now Japan is experiencing inflation after decades of falling or stagnant prices, and one of the country’s most popular cheap foods is suffering. Ramen shops are closing at a record rate this year, as owners face the dilemma of raising their prices above the “1,000 yen limit” to keep up with rising costs, or shutting down.
By July, 49 ramen shops had filed for bankruptcy, a record for the most closures in a year, according to Teikoku Databank, a Tokyo-based market research firm. The cost of ingredients, labor and electricity to make ramen has risen 10 percent over the past three years, the firm noted.
“Prices have risen over the years, but the last three years or so have been incredible,” said Tetsuya Kaneko, 44, who last year raised his price for a standard bowl by 50 yen to 1,000 yen at Mendokoro Isshou in western Tokyo. “I think everyone in the industry is struggling.”
Of course, ramen culture in Japan is not going away. The 49 bankruptcies represent only a fraction of the more than 21,000 ramen restaurants in Japan. Even on a humid day with 35 degrees Celsius, lovers lined up outside ramen shops at lunchtime to get a steaming bowl.
Each region of Japan touts its own style of ramen, from the noodle texture to the ingredients in the broth, including creamy tonkotsu made from pork bones in the south, sweet corn and butter miso in the north, and even tsukemen, a dipping ramen with noodles served separately from a broth made from chicken, pork and fish.
Still, the increase in factory closures this year underscores broader economic trends in Japan: Inflation is rising after nearly three “lost decades” of economic stagnation; the yen, despite strengthening slightly last month, remains stubbornly weak; and energy prices have risen since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Although wages are currently rising at their fastest pace in three decades, they are not keeping pace with inflation and people feel they are getting poorer.
“The example of the ramen shops is a really good example (of the economic trends) because they are struggling to pass on the cost increases to final consumers,” said Norihiro Yamaguchi, senior Japan economist at Oxford Economics. “Before 2022, consumers were reluctant to see price increases of any kind, whether it was food, rent or whatever. But (now)… they have to accept the increase in their cost of living.”
Such trends in the world’s fourth-largest economy attracted global attention earlier this month when the central bank unexpectedly raised interest rates to curb inflationary pressures. Shortly afterward, Japanese stock markets experienced their biggest one-day fall since 1987, sending shockwaves through global markets and highlighting the yen’s weakness.
The Japanese currency has lost more than 40 percent of its value against the dollar over the past five years, attracting investors who want to profit from the weak yen. Imports into resource-poor Japan have become dramatically more expensive as a result, which has exacerbated the energy shortage following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
While many countries around the world are grappling with a cost-of-living crisis, the price shock has hit Japanese consumers particularly hard because they were used to stable prices for so long. Small businesses are struggling to pass the costs on to consumers for fear of damaging their reputations and losing customers, experts say.
“If you ask your customers if you should raise prices, of course they say ‘no,'” said Jesper Koll, a Tokyo-based economist and investor.
“But the cost pressures – rising food prices, particularly rising energy prices, the pressure on the terms of trade – are obviously very real,” he said. “So you have to raise prices.”
Many ramen shop owners agree: their business is under a lot of pressure.
Ramen chefs apologize to customers
Taisei Hikage, 27, who runs Menya Taisei in western Tokyo, deftly strains noodles by tossing them in the air and catching them in a wire basket. His 14-seat shop specializes in iekei ramen, known for its broth made from pork marrow and soy sauce.
When Hikage started in the ramen industry in Tokyo ten years ago, the noodles were considered a “one-coin meal” because the basic dish could often be had for 500 yen ($3.40) a single piece.
Hikage opened his restaurant in March 2023, offering a bowl with no additional toppings for 750 yen ($5.08). But he has since raised prices twice due to rising costs and posted a lengthy apology on social media. He now charges 950 yen ($6.44) for a plain bowl.
“We (the industry) are at the breaking point of the 1,000 yen limit. It is slowly becoming unsustainable,” said Hikage.
The price of almost every ingredient in ramen has risen in the past two to three years, say Hikage and other ramen shop owners: pork, chicken, wheat, seaweed, bamboo shoots, spring onions, soy sauce and even oils.
Economists say the rise in food prices is partly due to poor harvests, but also to Japan’s high dependence on food imports.
Added to this is the energy required to simmer the broth for long periods of time to bring out the complex flavors, which often requires shops to keep the power on 24 hours a day.
Since more than 90 percent of the country’s total energy is imported, according to the Association of Japanese Electric Companies, the country is highly vulnerable to disruptions in the global energy supply, such as those caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“With the war, energy costs also went up, which had a huge impact,” said Kaneko, the owner of Mendokoro Isshou. “Not only the gas costs for cooking, but also the electricity costs. The air conditioning has to be kept on because it’s so hot (in summer). So we use a lot of energy.”
To help people cope with rising inflation, Japan has increased several minimum wages, bringing the national average up from 961 yen ($6.45) to 1,054 yen ($7.17).
The wage increases are good news for households, but pose another challenge for small businesses like Kaneko’s.
There is little relief in sight for pasta lovers
It will take some time for consumers to benefit from the yen’s 10 percent appreciation against the dollar in July, which took it to a seven-month high.
As the yen appreciates, import prices fall, but it takes about 10 months for this to impact food retail prices, says Yamaguchi, an economist at Oxford Economics.
“Food price pressure will continue at least until the end of this year,” Yamaguchi said.
Until then, many ramen shop owners are cautiously raising their prices to 1,000 yen or more, but keeping quality high to keep customers coming back. Some ramen chains are moving to the suburbs to offer cheap food to families struggling with inflation, Nikkei Asia reports.
“Ramen has always been a staple food for lower-income people or students and young people… so I don’t necessarily want ramen to become unaffordable for them,” Kaneko said.
But at least some customers seem to be getting used to the 1,000 yen ramen.
Yuya Henmi, an IT worker who waited 30 minutes outside ramen restaurant Menya Taisei on a sweltering day, said he doesn’t mind higher ramen prices – as long as the noodles are tasty.
“I like ramen a lot, so I would probably pay up to 2,000 yen ($13.63) if it’s really good,” said Henmi, 28.
His wife and friend were against it, so he quickly added, “But for a regular ramen without toppings, I think 1,500 yen is the maximum.”
