Photo/Illutration Kura Sushi Inc. will raise the prices of its standard dishes, such as tuna, from 110 yen to 115 yen, including tax. (Takashi Yoshida)

After almost 40 years, frugal customers at the Kura Sushi Inc. conveyor belt restaurants will have to dig deeper into their pockets, as the chain will soon end its lowest-priced 100 yen (69 cents) offering.

Kura Sushi announced on Sept. 7 that the most inexpensive plate will be increased in price from October, blaming the weakening yen as well as rising seafood and fuel costs.

It is the first time that dishes of 100 yen, excluding consumption tax, will disappear from the stores’ menus since 1984 when the company entered the sushi conveyer belt business.

Adding the consumption tax, Kura Sushi currently has two prices for sushi plates in general: 110 yen and 220 yen.

Approximately 50 of the chain's 60 inexpensive sushi dishes will be raised to 115 yen in price from October.

Six of these dishes, mackerel, flatfish, salmon with onion, tuna roll, boiled octopus and raw octopus with shiso leaf, will be increased to 165 yen in price.

The price changes will be applied to 488 of Kura Sushi's 519 outlets.

The decision comes as the weak yen further drives up seafood and fuel costs.

“We concluded that we can’t overcome rapid and endless price hikes just with our company efforts,” said Kura Sushi President Kunihiko Tanaka.

Kura Sushi increased the number of more expensive sushi offerings to 40 percent of all of its dishes in July to raise the total amount spent by one customer. But the number of customers has been sluggish during the summer, usually a busy season for the chain.

Kura Sushi also said on Sept. 7 that it would double the number of its 18 expensive dishes but lower the price from 220 yen to 165 yen.

The second-largest sushi chain intends to soften the impact of price hikes on standard dishes.

Other conveyer-belt sushi restaurant operators are being forced to raise their prices and increase the number of higher-priced items this year.

Akindo Sushiro Co., the nation's leading conveyer belt sushi chain, will increase the price of sushi in its suburban outlets, which constitute many of the company’s approximately 640 restaurants, starting in October.

The 110-yen yellow plates will be hiked by 10 yen, the 165-yen red plates will be raised 15 yen and the 330-yen black plates will be increased by 30 yen.

The 110-yen plate has been synonymous with the sushi conveyer belt industry in Japan.

The industry’s third biggest company, Hama Sushi Co., and the fourth largest, Kappa Create Co., on the other hand, are both keeping their least expensive dishes at 110 yen.

Hama Sushi, however, raised its 308-yen dishes to 319 yen. The company used to offer some sushi at 90 yen, excluding tax, on weekdays but ended the bargain rate in June.

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