Tag - food

 
 

FOOD

Takaya Awata, president of Toridoll Holdings, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 18, 2025
Marugame Seimen noodle restaurant managers to see raise of up to ¥20 million
Eatery chain operator Toridoll Holdings' president also indicated the company may extend the plan to other restaurant chains in the group.
Rice farmer Toru Wakui in his rice paddies in Ogata, Akita Prefecture, in August
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 17, 2025
For Japan's rice growers, postwar policy shifts yet to deliver stable future
Amid renewed tightness in supply and a spike in prices, officials have been urging farmers to plant more, marking yet another reversal in Japan's 80 years of agricultural policy.
Pastry shop Chez Shibata opens on the newly renovated basement floor of Seibu Ikebukuro on Tuesday in Tokyo's Toshima Ward.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 16, 2025
Seibu's Ikebukuro store to open new 'depachika' food floor
A highlight of the renovated basement floor is the opening of 10 new cake shops, including Chez Shibata, which is opening its first shop in the Kanto region.
Despite centuries of overfishing and ecological collapse, the recovery of tuna stocks shows that strong regulation and economic self-interest can make once-endangered species sustainably abundant again.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 16, 2025
Tuna sushi is safe from extinction, for now
With the exception of Mediterranean albacore (a favorite of Spanish canneries) and bigeye in the Indian Ocean, every population is now being fished within sustainable levels.
Government-stockpiled rice to be sold to help bring down high prices sits on display in a Tokyo grocery store on May 31.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2025
Rice prices in Japan rebound to 13-week high
The average price rose ¥264 from the previous week to ¥4,155 in the week through Sept. 7, up for the second straight week.
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 12, 2025
Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?
Facing a stagnant and highly competitive retail market in Japan, Seven & I’s growth is expected to come from overseas.
Kirin officials in Tokyo on Tuesday show the Electric Salt Cup, which lets users feel salty tastes more strongly and thus cut down on salt intake.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2025
Kirin releases electric soup cup that enhances salty taste
The cup is available on the company's official online store at a price of ¥26,950 ($182).
Taiwan has launched a 60-day public comment period on easing import restrictions on Japanese food, originally imposed after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2025
Taiwan expected to lift restrictions on imported Japanese food
Random radiation checks will be conducted on imports.
Sukiya plans to cut prices for its beef bowls for the first time since 2014 starting on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 31, 2025
Sukiya to slash beef bowl prices for first time in 11 years
The move, which comes after a hike in March, will effectively bring prices back down to levels below its major rivals Yoshinoya and Matsuya.
In September, prices will rise for  seasoning products, such as sauce and mayonnaise, as well as for many frozen food products and confectionery items such as chocolate, according to research firm Teikoku Databank.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 29, 2025
Prices of 1,422 food items, including chocolate, to rise in Japan in September
The monthly total of food products and beverages with higher prices will rise 0.6% from a year earlier, up for the ninth consecutive month.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 2.5% in Tokyo in August from a year earlier, versus a 2.9% clip in the previous month, according to the internal affairs ministry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 29, 2025
Tokyo inflation slows on subsidies as BOJ stays on hike path
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 2.5% year on year in the capital in August, versus a 2.9% clip in July.
An advertisement for McDonald's new protein slice is displayed on an ordering kiosk at a McDonald's restaurant in Bengaluru, India
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Aug 26, 2025
In protein-deficient India, McDonald's, Bollywood and cricket fuel wellness craze
McDonald's has joined India's biggest dairy Amul, startups and a company backed by Bollywood superstar to unleash a marketing blitz with celebrity chefs pushing protein as crucial.
An employee at a wholesaler puts a price tag on a package of sea urchins from Hokkaido at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 26, 2025
Warming seas add to food inflation woes as urchin rice bowls hit ¥18,000
Policymakers have mostly blamed rising food prices on the weak yen's upward pressure on import costs, but the effects of global warming now also loom as a risk.
Summers in Japan have grown hotter and hotter, and people have had to spend more money as a result.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 25, 2025
Tokyo household budgets further squeezed by heat wave
On average, monthly expenses are up more than $23 a month as a result of high temperatures.
Cindy McCain, the executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme, speaks during an interview in Yokohama on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
WFP chief wants world to pay attention to Africa
The continent, whose countries suffer from famine, refugee and other humanitarian crises, is sometimes forgotten, Cindy McCain, the executive director of the U.N. body, says.
Kazuhiro Nomura, president of BK Japan Holdings, which operates Burger King in Japan
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 21, 2025
Big burgers and bigger ambitions for Japan's Burger King
The fast-food chain has grown fourfold in just six years.
McDonald's Japan has canceled its plan to bundle "One Piece" trading cards with its Happy Set meals, after a similar Pokemon-themed campaign sparked a frenzy and uproar over uneaten food being discarded.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 21, 2025
McDonald's Japan to skip 'One Piece' Happy Meal promo
The cancellation follows a similar Pokemon-themed campaign that sparked a frenzy and uproar over uneaten food being discarded.
Rice retailed for an average ¥3,737 per 5-kilogram bag at about 1,000 supermarkets nationwide from Aug. 4 to 10, up ¥195 from the previous week and around 1.4 times the value a year earlier, according to the agriculture ministry.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 19, 2025
Rice prices climbed in early August as stockpile release slowed, data shows
Retail prices averaged ¥3,737 per 5-kilogram bag from Aug. 4 to 10, up ¥195 from the previous week and around 1.4 times the price a year earlier.
Beijing imposed a ban on imports of Japanese fisheries products in August 2023.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2025
JETRO struggles to expand scallop supply chain in U.S.
Steep tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump left prospects for the project uncertain, apparently making businesses reluctant to invest in it.
Actors in period costume pose on a re-creation of a Tudor wine fountain at Hampton Court Palace in Surrey, England, in April 2010. England’s recent wine boom is hitting limits due to scale, costs and competition.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2025
England’s sparkling wine is losing its fizz
It really doesn’t help having higher taxes now measured on alcohol content. The going is only getting tougher for fledgling startups.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’