By YUJI YAMASHITA/ Staff Writer
September 28, 2022 at 17:46 JST
A Yoshinoya restaurant (Kazumi Tako)
Prices at Japanese beef bowl restaurant chain Yoshinoya Co. will soon be raised again for the second time in a year.
Yoshinoya Co. announced its regular-size beef bowl eat-in price, including tax, will be 448 yen ($3.10) from 2 p.m. on Oct. 1, an increase of 22 yen.
The company already raised the price of its signature dish by 39 yen to 426 yen in October last year.
It was forced to review the prices again, however, as ingredient and logistical costs continue to rise.
The prices of all rice bowl dishes of all sizes will be hiked by 22 yen each from Oct. 1.
A regular-sized pork bowl will be 415 yen.
A “kalbi” Korean barbecue beef bowl and a beef barbecue bowl of the same size will be 624 yen.
The price for a regular-size “beef plate” will be raised by 20 yen to 369 yen.
“Ingredient prices have risen in the past year or so across the board,” said a public relations official of the company.
The official added that the weaker yen has inflated the price of beef the company imports from North America.
The price rise will apply to all the company’s approximately 1,200 restaurants across Japan, excluding some where dishes will be priced differently, according to the company.
Yoshinoya’s beef bowl has been popular among office workers partly due to its affordable price.
The regular-size beef bowl was priced at as low as 280 yen between 2001 and 2004 and between 2013 and 2014.
One of its competitors, Sukiya Co., raised the price of its regular-size beef bowl to 400 yen last year.
Matsuya Foods Co., another competitor of Yoshinoya, also hiked the price of its regular-size beef bowl to 380 yen and unified its menu across all its restaurants in Japan at the same time last year.
The companies could also copy Yoshinoya and review their prices, industry observers said.
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