The End of Japan's 100-Yen Sushi

Japan's 100-yen sushi era is ending — and the big chains are fighting back.

▼ About This Episode

For decades, a hundred-yen plate was Japan's everyday luxury — affordable, reliable, almost a birthright. Now that round number is breaking. Rice and fish costs are climbing, and the big conveyor-belt chains are scrambling to keep the price you see from moving.

On a windy office rooftop at the end of lunch break — where a stranger keeps failing to light a cigarette against the gusts — Haru and Sakura follow the cost upstream. Kura Sushi, hit by a rice bill that's jumped about twenty-five million dollars, now breeds its own mackerel and trims waste with AI. Genki Sushi has started growing its own rice. And the growth that's slowing at home is being chased across the ocean, from California to Australia.

It's the quiet story of how a restaurant becomes a food supply-chain company — owning the rice, breeding the fish, crossing the sea, all to keep one plate cheap. So when a farm, a fish pen, and a foreign listing hold up your lunch, is it still "cheap" sushi — or just the part they let you see?

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◆Note

The content of this program is intended solely for informational purposes and reflects the personal views of the creators. Please make any investment or business decisions based on your own judgment and responsibility. This program does not endorse or recommend any specific financial products or investment strategies.

#JapanBusiness #JapaneseCulture #NarrativeJapan #JapanPodcast #SushiEconomics #KaitenSushi