2024 was shaping up to be a bad year for ramen shops. And it turned out to be pretty awful in the end, as Japan saw a record number of bankruptcies.
The final numbers are in: 72 ramen shops shuttered for good in 2023 due to bankruptcy. “Bankruptcy” is here defined as having over 10 million yen (USD $63,000) in liabilities and closing via a legal proceeding.
In 2022, only 53 went bankrupt, making for an increase of over 30% (19 additional stores). That’s the largest number of ramen restaurant bankruptcies ever recorded.
The driving factor is rising prices of all raw ingredients, including pork, oil, noodles, and seaweed. Despite the rise in costs, Teikoku Databank, which tracks the restaurant industry, says many ramen shops are convinced they can’t break the supposed “1000 yen” (USD $6.34) wall for the cost of a bowl without driving away customers. The average bowl of ramen nationwide retails for under 700 yen ($4.44).
As we’ve written before, however, many shops are breaking the 1000 yen wall and managing, not only to stay in business, but to thrive. Some specialty shops, such as roast beef ramen restaurants, can charge up to 3,000 yen ($19) for some of their dishes.
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Other restaurants, such as standing soba shops, also say the spike in prices, combined with customer expectations of low prices, is making It difficult for them to keep operating. A spike in the price of cabbage is also hitting tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) restaurants, which traditionally serve the vegetable as a side.
It’s likely that, in order to survive, more ramen shops will need to raise their prices. And Japanese consumers, in turn, will need to let go of their conviction that ramen in 2025 should sell at 1990s prices.
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