As everyone who’s ever ordered tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) knows, cabbage is a staple vegetable in Japan. But a poor crop and rising prices for vegetables here have sent the price skyrocketing. That’s driven supermarket chains to do something that would have been unthinkable just months ago: importing more cabbage from China.
As we’ve previously reported, the price of multiple vegetables in Japan has risen during the past several months. Cabbage, however, had shot up so badly that some tonkatsu restaurants, which serve heaps of (usually cheap) shredded cabbage as part of the dish, claim it’s become more expensive than pork.
That shows no signs of abating. Recently, according to Gendai Media, prices for cabbage in the wholesale market rose to 211% of what they were a year ago. That’s made cabbages a valuable target for theft, with thieves making off with thousands of heads at a time.
That’s led some stores to get desperate. And by “desperate,” we mean turning to China.
Local media reports that various supermarket chains are now selling cabbage from China at prices significantly lower than locally-produced leaf. At this rate, it’s expected that, by March, Japan will have imported 19 times the cabbage it did compared to a year ago.
The situation isn’t unprecedented. Japan also relied on China in 2018, when cabbage yields were particularly low.
However, some fear of the current condition could become more or less permanent. The current cabbage shortage is due in large part to a poor yield due to last year’s extremely hot weather. However, extremely hot weather in Japan appears to be the new normal. That’s left many worried that cabbage yields won’t bounce back like they have in the past.
That news lately won’t sit well with Japan’s far right. Conservative elements of the country are already agitating against what they see as growing Chinese influence. For example, a recent plan to expand visitor visas for wealthy Chinese tourists has sparked a rabid backlash.
Sadly, facts don’t care about people’s feelings. Unless climate change somehow suddenly reverses, it’s likely that locally produced cabbage in Japan could soon become a luxury item. Perhaps the day isn’t too far off when we’ll see people giving each other $600 cabbages as gifts.
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