One of the coolest things about Japan is that, no matter where you are, there’s a ramen shop nearby that will sell you an incredibly delicious bowl of noodles for an incredibly low price. But even Japan, a country that has everything figured out, can’t get a handle on these runaway food prices.
Pity the restaurateur trying to keep things afloat these days. The two options they seem to have is raise prices and tick off their customers, or go bankrupt. And over in Japan, they are unfortunately choosing the latter.
According to Japanese research firm Teikoku Databank, more ramen shops went bankrupt in 2024 than during any time in Japanese history. Keep in mind, Japan’s ramen shop industry has been going steady for a very, very long time. Rairaiken opened in Tokyo in 1910 and has been serving ramen from the same shop, with the exact same recipe, since the day it opened. Same with Daikan Honten in Osaka, which served up its first bowl of ramen in 1912 and has been continuously operating ever since.
According to a story on Kyodo News, the reason so many ramen shops went bankrupt last year is because most shops refuse to raise their price above the standard 700 yen (about $6) price point. Pretty much anywhere you go in Japan, a bowl of ramen costs 700 yen, it’s just a weird nationwide thing.
But with global food prices going bananas, it’s now nearly impossible to sell a bowl of ramen for 700 yen. Yet still, ramen shops won’t budge from the 700 yen marker. More than a third of ramen shops surveyed by Teikoku Databank said they are now selling each bowl of ramen at a loss, in order to maintain the 700 yen price point.
The devastation of the restaurant industry is definitely something we’ve seen here in Niagara in the last year too. I’ve lost count of how many great eateries we lost.
Curiously, lots of restaurants also opened last year, but if you look a bit closer, you’ll notice a distinct trend. At least anecdotally, what I’ve noticed over the past two years is that new restaurants, ones that open and actually survive, fall into exactly two categories: they are either cheap, greasy fast food, or very expensive fine dining. There is nothing left in the middle.
In the last two years alone, Fort Erie has seen the opening of a new McDonalds, Arby’s, Taco Bell, A&W, and a KFC, selling reconstituted quasi-meat patties for $8.
At the other end of the spectrum, places like Rizzo’s House of Parm have opened to great success, selling $28 chicken parms and $19 Caesar salads.
And in between those two extremes? Nothing. All the restaurants in the middle have shuttered because rising food costs forced them to hike their prices, but since they aren’t selling that “luxury” dining experience, they lost all their customers.
It’s similar to what happened to the film industry. For a long time, Hollywood churned out cheap pulp films and low budget comedies alongside big budget action films. But now, there is no middle, just the two extremes. There are exactly two types of movies that get made these days: extremely expensive superhero action films, or dirt cheap indie movies; nothing in between.
There is, however, a glimmer of hope for the restaurant industry, and it’s the bakery-slash-cafe places that seem to be popping up and somehow staving off the great priceflation scourge that has toppled everyone else, places like the new Stoke in Fonthill.
I found the same thing at Little Red Coffee down in Fort Erie, where you can score a tasty meatball sub and a coffee for under $15.
Is this as good as 700 yen ramen shops? No, but if even the Japanese can’t keep the 700 yen ramen shops alive, then we should count ourselves lucky that we’ve got anywhere to eat for under $20.
James Culic won’t be filing a column next week because he’ll be in the Dominican looking for sushi shops. Find out how to yell at him at the bottom of this page or enjoy a delicious bowl of letter to the editor soup by stirring here.
