It’s almost the end of 2024, which means it’s time for another Japanese New Year’s tradition: end-of-year soba (年越しそば; toshi-koshi soba). That’s good news for soba shops. Sadly, it might be the only good news they get all year. Reports say that, like ramen restaurants, standing soba restaurants are struggling against the expectation that their food remain dirt cheap even as their costs rise.
Standing soba (立ち食い蕎麦; tachi-gui soba) shops are a tradition dating back to Japan’s Edo era. They’re a quick place to grab a meal of Japan’s famous buckwheat noodle dish in one of its many varieties.
Unfortunately, rising costs are putting the squeeze on many businesses. While flour costs in general haven’t gone up (like, say, the cost of rice, eggs, or vegetables have), the cost of soba flour has. That, plus the spike in utility costs, is cutting into the profits of many soba manufacturers.
Like ramen makers, who say they face a “1000 yen” wall, standing soba restaurants also say they feel they’re limited by the “500 yen wall.” (500 yen is currently around USD $3.20.) They say if they raise prices well beyond that already low watermark, they’ll lose customers, which will cost them more money.
This “wall” phenomenon in Japan seems limited to these staple foods. The price of a McDonald’s hamburger in Japan, for example, used to be 80 yen in 1971. McDonald’s Japan has raised prices five times in 2024 alone; today, a hamburger’s around 170 yen – nearly double the price.
Uber Eats is making the soba business harder
Japan’s massive influx of tourists is helping some soba shops. However, it’s only saving those in high-trafficked tourist areas. It’s not benefiting other shops in the Shitamachi (low-lying districts) of Tokyo, for example.
Maruhana is a shinise that’s been in operation for 120 years. It was originally started by a former samurai who found himself out of work thanks to the fall of the Shogunate and the dawn of the Meiji Era. Unfortunately, its Shitamachi location – near Kinshicho in Eastern Tokyo – means it doesn’t see the same tourist traffic as, say, a standing soba place in Shibuya or Akasaka.
Ibara Kazuhiro (茨和宏), who runs Maruhana, tells Shueisha Online that delivery services like Uber Eats aren’t helping, either. Ibara says the cost of disposable containers and utensils eat further into his store’s profits.
Traditionally, soba businesses have run their own delivery (出前; demae) services that served food in reusable containers. Delivery was a two-step process, with a delivery person dropping off food、e this process time-consuming and less practical.
It’s hard to measure how dangerous the current situation is for standing soba shops. The government doesn’t keep close track of soba shop profits or closures. But unless Japanese consumers shift their stance on the 500 yen wall, it’s possible some shops in less-popular parts of Japan – even long-running ones like Ibara’s – could disappear forever.
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