Tag - food

 
Menu
Search
 
February 22, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

FOOD

Cabbage prices have risen to 2.6 times their five-year average in Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 20, 2025
Japan’s food inflation is becoming harder for BOJ to overlook
The level of fresh food prices has risen 71.9% since 2010, about five times more than that of inflation excluding it.
Behind a record-breaking rise in Japan's rice prices are intensifying competition among buyers since the serious shortage of the country's staple food in stores in summer 2024 and hoarding by those bullish about rice prices.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2025
Price of rice sold to wholesalers surges to another high in Japan
The January average rose 69% from a year earlier to ¥25,927 per 60 kilograms of brown rice amid intensifying demand.
A worker rides a tractor while spraying organic pesticide on crops at a farm in Hudson, New York, in 2020.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2025
EU plans stricter food import restrictions over pesticide use
EU farmers have been protesting across Europe over the past year about the increasing burdens of the bloc’s climate and environmental rules.
The government's stockpiled rice in Tokyo in 1999. Since 1995, the government has been stockpiling around 200,000 tons of rice from the annual harvest to ensure that there is enough to go around during emergencies.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2025
Government taps rice stockpile to reverse price increases
This will be the first time the stockpile has been used to reduce prices instead of due to emergencies.
Researchers have come up with a way to measure the sugar content of white strawberries using near-infrared light without having to damage the fruit.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2025
New method reveals white strawberry sweetness without damage
Before such technology, the most common way to determine the sweetness of a strawberry was to crush it up and analyze the juice created.
Domino's Pizza will close 172 unprofitable outlets out of about 1,000 stores in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2025
Domino's pizza to close 172 outlets in Japan
The global delivery pizza chain will prioritize investments in areas that will help it improve earnings.
Palestinians collect food handouts from a free kitchen run by volunteers in Khan Younis, in the central Gaza Strip, on Jan. 17.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 7, 2025
Halt in U.S. aid cripples global efforts to relieve hunger
The pause impairs programs that aim to prevent mass starvation and, more immediately, hobbles those meant to respond to crises and save lives.
The United States was the biggest food export destination for Japan, with shipments totaling ¥242.9 billion, up 17.8%, helped by efforts to diversify scallop export markets following China's fishery import ban.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 5, 2025
Japan's food exports hit record high for 12th straight year
The United States was the biggest food export destination for Japan.
Based on his own assessment, Hideo Hayakawa, a former Bank of Japan executive director, says he sees the BOJ’s terminal rate in this cycle somewhere around 1.5%.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 5, 2025
BOJ’s rate likely to go higher than consensus, ex-official says
"My base view is that there is a lot more coming,” the former director said. "There is little logical reason to believe that rate hikes will stop early.”
Ramen with simmered tuna cheek meat and soup made from bluefin tuna bones in Tokyo's Koto Ward
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 4, 2025
Novel seafood noodles become flavor of the moment in Tokyo
Noodles served with tuna, yellowtail, whale meat or other ingredients are gaining in popularity.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a committee meeting in parliament on Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2025
Ishiba seeks quick action in bid to fight inflation
The prime minister's plan comes as households face soaring rice and vegetable prices.
Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Feb 3, 2025
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?
They're no substitute for policy, but by providing food and belonging, these safe spaces are filling in the cracks of the nation's fraying communities.
Prices of some 1,600 food items, including Ezaki Glico's chocolate snack Pocky, will be raised in February.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2025
Prices of 1,656 food items to increase in Japan in February
There are notable price hikes for chocolate confectioneries, flour products and frozen food using rice.
The koji room at Fukuwagura brewery in Mie Prefecture, where metals such as stainless steel, which are easy to manage for hygiene, are widely used
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jan 30, 2025
Japanese food makers step in to preserve sake breweries' legacy
The initiatives by food companies coincide with a growing recognition of traditional sake-making techniques.
Though vegan restaurants have been on the upswing since 2017, Japanese vegans still lack a wide variety of options.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Jan 29, 2025
In meat- and fish-loving Japan, veganism is making a comeback
Tourism, climate goals and animal rights concerns are sparking a plant-based renaissance in a country famous for sushi and pork ramen.
A worker walks past cattle carcasses at the municipal slaughterhouse in Sao Felix do Xingu, Brazil.The country is in talks with Japan over exports of its beef.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2025
Brazil in talks for beef shipments to Japan in threat to U.S.
The U.S. is currently one of Japan’s major beef suppliers, but the country is dealing with a severe shortage of cattle that drove a spike in beef imports from Brazil.
The production line at Tanmiah Food’s chicken processing plant in Shaqra, Saudi Arabia
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2025
Chickens hatch across the Saudi desert in kingdom’s pivot from oil
The kingdom imports about 80% of what it eats, triggering worries about shortages in a time of rising geopolitical tensions.
A farmer stands next to his flood-damaged rice field after Typhoon Shanshan passed through Yufu, Oita Prefecture, in August 2024.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2025
Japan plans to sell rice from emergency stockpiles to cut prices
The government will discuss selling part of its strategic rice reserve next week, the agriculture minister said Friday.
Katsumi Shinagawa prepares to shred cabbage to serve with pork cutlet dishes at the restaurant Katsukichi in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 24, 2025
Climate change cooks up Japanese 'cabbage shock'
It is the latest pain point for shoppers and eateries in Japan already squeezed by inflation.
52.0% of people questioned in a survey said they want to use containers to take leftovers home if they are provided free of charge, and 28.8% showed willingness to use takeout containers whether they are free or not.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2025
Survey finds 80% of people want to take leftover restaurant food home
14.5% of those surveyed answered that they have never left food in restaurants.
Yen advances past ¥150 per dollar as BOJ rate-hike bets ramp up
The Japanese currency climbed as much as 1% to ¥149.95 against the dollar on Thursday, a level it hasn’t touched since Dec. 9.
Japan release of Shiori Ito's documentary in limbo
Shiori Ito, who won a civil suit over a rape case against a TV reporter, in 2018. Her former lawyers claim her documentary includes footage used without the consent of sources.
LDP and opposition lock horns over Japan budget
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in parliament on Friday
Japanese panel seeks to tighten screening of new universities
Education minister Toshiko Abe (right) receives a report on higher education from an advisory panel on Friday.
Over 80% of Japanese say death penalty system is 'unavoidable'
Former death row inmate Iwao Hakamata (left) and his sister, Hideko, attend a gathering of his supporters after his acquittal in a retrial over a 1966 murder case was finalized in October last year.
As Ukraine rift emerges, Kyiv's envoy says Japan must take on bigger global role
Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan Sergiy Korsunsky speaks during an interview at the Ukrainian Embassy in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan release of Shiori Ito's documentary in limbo
Shiori Ito, who won a civil suit over a rape case against a TV reporter, in 2018. Her former lawyers claim her documentary includes footage used without the consent of sources.
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown ready to sprint past Paris disappointment
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (center) runs during a 100-meter heat at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 3, 2024.
What is the ceiling for sumo’s newest yokozuna?
Newly promoted grand champion Hoshoryu (center) performs a dedication ceremony at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on Jan. 31.
‘Yasuko, Songs of Days Past’ puts overlooked star in the spotlight
“Yasuko, Songs of Days Past” centers on a real-life love triangle between poet Chuya Nakahara (Taisei Kido, left), actor Yasuko Hasegawa (Suzu Hirose, center) and literary critic Hideo Kobayashi (Masaki Okada).

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Tokyo Koon stands at the forefront of tackling the so-called 2025 issue, also known as the “Magnetic Tape Alert.”
The race to save 20th-century history
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Site designer on why expos matter more than ever
Site designer on why expos matter more than ever

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER