McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) will introduce a new pricing policy possibly this month, abandoning its current uniform pricing system by charging more in urban than in rural areas, company officials said Tuesday.
The nation's largest hamburger chain plans to hike prices by 3 percent to 5 percent in Tokyo, Osaka and other large cities where it faces higher personnel costs and rents, the officials said.
It will cut prices by 2 percent to 3 percent at rural outlets.
Almost all of its items are subject to the price review, which is meant to secure stable profits on a long-term basis.
McDonald's will peg its strategic 100 yen burger at the current price nationwide.
It is not common in Japan for a restaurant chain to set different prices for dishes according to location. Rival hamburger chains and firms in different categories of restaurants could follow suit.
The chain operates about 3,800 hamburger restaurants nationwide.