Key facts
- Sea urchin catch in Hokkaido has halved, leading to record-high prices for seafood bowls.
- Restaurants on Rishiri Island are charging $100-$120 for a sea urchin rice bowl.
- Rising sea temperatures are blamed for the decline in cold-water fish species.
- Food prices in Japan have seen a significant increase, with household spending on food at its highest in 43 years.
- Climate change is identified as a contributing factor to structurally higher inflation.
Traditional seafood bowls in Japan, particularly on the northern island of Hokkaido, are undergoing changes due to shrinking supplies and soaring prices of key ingredients like sea urchin. Rising sea temperatures, attributed to global warming, have led to a significant decline in catches of cold-water species, including sea urchin, salmon, squid, and saury.
On Rishiri Island, the catch of sea urchin has halved, causing prices to double to between $100 and $120 for a 100-gram serving of bafun sea urchin. This prohibitive cost has made the delicacy unaffordable for many, with restaurant patrons sometimes sharing a single bowl or opting for less expensive dishes like ramen. The top price for 10 kilograms of Rishiri's bafun sea urchin has surged to 90,000 yen, more than double the price from two years ago.
This scarcity is part of a broader trend of declining volumes for popular cold-water species over the last two decades, with prices increasing nearly fivefold. The warming waters are also impacting other regions, such as the Tohoku region, which is no longer a major salmon-producing area. These changes underscore the tangible economic effects of climate change, which are contributing to structurally higher inflation.
Overall food prices in Japan rose 7.6% year-on-year in July, with household spending on food reaching nearly 30% of their budget, the highest in 43 years. While the weak yen is a primary driver of food inflation, the impact of global warming is increasingly evident. Tourists visiting markets like Tsukiji in Tokyo are also finding seafood bowls too expensive, resorting to cheaper street foods. Experts suggest that extreme weather events and rising global temperatures will likely lead to persistently higher inflation in the future.