In its most recent survey of national eating habits, Japan’s government discovered something unsettling. Adults in this wealthy, healthy country were now eating the smallest daily volume of vegetables since 2001.
The reason? Inflation. At the beginning of March, prices of the three key ingredients of Japanese hotpot, a traditional winter dish — Chinese cabbage, leek and carrots — were respectively 227, 167 and 140 per cent above their long-term average. The Engel coefficient, which measures food as a proportion of household spending, is at a 43-year high.
The collective decision to cut back on greens has come as the country undergoes what some see as its biggest economic inflection in over 30 years: the much-heralded “normalisation” of Japan’s relationship with money after a long period of stagnant prices and moribund growth.