Asia | Tasty stick growth

Prices are rising in Japan, but not wages

The pandemic and commodity prices have done what years of loose monetary policy could not

A customer shops at an Akidai YK supermarket in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, June 27, 2022. Japan's key inflation gauge stayed above the Bank of Japan's target level of 2%, a result that will likely keep speculation alive over possible policy adjustments at the central bank. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Aug 18th 2022|TOKYO

Umaibo has delighted Japanese people for decades. The cylindrical puffed-corn treat, whose name means “delicious stick”, comes in 15 flavours, from salami to spicy cod roe. The price makes it all the more appealing: the same ten yen ($0.08) since it hit the market in 1979. So when Yaokin Corporation, the firm which makes Umaibo, put up prices by two yen in January, it made national news. “We’re witnessing a turning point in history,” tweeted Osawa Atsushi, a musician whose rock band crooned about Umaibo’s “miracle price” in a hit song in 2010.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Tasty stick growth”