Global inflation is taking a bite out of Japan's iconic 'hanami' cherry blossom picnics, with an index tracking food and drink costs up 25 per cent since 2020, private think tank Dai-ichi Life Research Institute said.
Around late March to early April of each year, the Japanese fill parks and riverbanks with blue tarps, lunch boxes, snacks and drinks to picnic under blooming cherry trees with family and friends in a custom called 'hanami.'
The event, a must-do for many Japanese, is not immune to be hit from rising raw material costs that has prodded companies to charge more for a wide range of food and beverages.
To gauge the degree of pain, Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research, updated an index he created in 2020, using the latest data to track the weighted average price of 14 popular 'hanami' items including rice balls, bento boxes, fried chicken, potato chips and spirits.
The findings showed the cost of 'hanami' was up 4.2 per cent in February from year-before levels, and rose 25.0 per cent from the base year of 2020.
Japanese sweet buns recorded the biggest price rise, up 46.1 per cent from 2020 levels, followed by carbonated drinks at 45.7 per cent and rice balls at 45.0 per cent, the index showed.
"A weak yen and rising global commodity prices are causing cost-push inflation in Japan," Kumano said. "Hanami is clearly facing the negative effect of the global inflationary trend."
After being mired in decades of deflation, Japan has seen inflation creep up since the Ukraine war as a falling yen and rising commodity prices boosted the cost of raw material imports.
Core consumer inflation stayed above the Bank of Japan's 2 per cent target for nearly four years before slowing to 1.6 per cent in February due largely to generous government fuel subsidies.
Meanwhile, Japan's tourist boom has forced some authorities to take action.
A cherry blossom festival boasting a highly Instagrammable view of Mount Fuji was cancelled this year after residents complained of overtourism.
"People associate Japan with carefully composed visuals," said Seio Nakajima, a professor in the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University.
That could be because of the detailed, beautiful backgrounds in anime, or because of a deeper "cultural tradition of emphasising form".
"If people focus on form rather than meaning, it becomes easier to go viral. Because you don't need to think," Nakajima said.
Japan's formalities — from the complexity of polite language to extreme attention to detail in packaging or wrapping — may surprise visitors, he said.
But "Japan is not always clean and aesthetic. That's only part of the reality."
Despite the backlash, tourists in Tokyo's busy Tsukiji market said that the country had lived up to their expectations.
"In Russia, it's very popular to hype Japan," said Tatiana Mokeeva, 25.
When asked if posts about Japan could be unrealistic, she said: "To tell the truth, no... I love all about Japan." — AFP
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