April is the start of the new financial year in Japan, and with that comes a bump to the cost of goods. Japan will now face increased prices of daily essentials due to the rising cost of raw materials. As reported by Japan Today, the price hikes will begin today (Friday April 1).
Just some of the food items subject to price hikes include major brands of cheese, cooking oil and ketchup. Nikkei Asia (in Japanese only) also reported that Starbucks would be implementing higher prices for its flagship products from April 13. Those famous Frapuccino drinks are going up by ¥10-¥50 each and coffee beans will be ¥90 more expensive.
Even KitKats are slated to increase prices from July 1. The Huffington Post reports that Nestle will raise the prices of some KitKat share bags. The KitKat Mini 12 piece set will go up from ¥324 to ¥356 while the Variety Assortment (146g) will be bumped from ¥378 to ¥416. Meanwhile, both the KitKat Mini and KitKat Mini Adult Sweetness bags will stay the same price, but have one fewer KitKat per pack.
Furthermore, another Nikkei Asia report says bread and pastries will see the steepest price increase, followed by frozen foods and dry pasta. While food manufacturers have been pushing retailers to up their prices, apparently supermarkets such as Aeon and Seiyu plan to maintain the prices of their private brand items.
Food is not the only thing affected by the price hikes. Japan Today also says that daily essentials such as tissues and toilet paper, as well as diapers will also increase. Japan’s transportation systems will also get costlier with East Japan Railway Co (aka JR East) to raise shinkansen ticket prices during high season and Japan Airlines to raise the cost of tickets for certain domestic flights from April 15.
This article was originally published on April 1 and updated on April 5.
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