Inflation & Prices
Tourist Boom Making Seafood Bowls Too Pricey for Many Japanese
- Visitors to Japan showed robust ongoing recovery in January
- Higher prices have yet to translate into solid economic growth
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Booming numbers of foreign visitors to Japan are driving up prices at restaurants near tourist spots, as a weaker yen makes the country a bargain destination and local wages struggle to keep up with a broader rise in costs.
Emblematic of this is the ¥6,980 ($46.52) sashimi-topped rice bowl at Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai, a new retail complex in Tokyo’s Toyosu area. It’s made with fresh seafood from the adjacent fish market, which was moved from the famed Tsukiji auction building in 2018. A similar kaisen-don meal, made with slightly lower quality ingredients, can be had for ¥1,000 to ¥1,500 in other parts of the city.