Japan’s Households Turn to Bean Sprouts, Ketchup Amid Recession
Japan’s deepest postwar recession is encouraging cash-strapped consumers to eat more bean sprouts, ketchup and cheap beef, according to a report by Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute.
Spending by each household fell a record 69,509 yen ($734) in 2008, Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life in Tokyo, wrote in a report published today. Consumers cut back the most on food, paring outlays by 16,952 yen, he said.
“Households are in serious penny-pinching mode,” Nagahama wrote in a report that compares last year’s consumption with spending during the 1998 financial crisis. “We’re seeing families eat more at home to help save money.”
The recession that began with slumps in exports and production has started to spread to consumers in the world’s second-largest economy as companies cut jobs and wages cash advance. Purchases of bean sprouts, an inexpensive and nutritious vegetable, rose to the highest level since 1998, according to Dai-Ichi Life.
Ketchup is the only condiment that consumers tend to purchase more during recessions, probably because it has a strong correlation with so-called aibiki meat, an inexpensive mix of ground beef and pork families buy more frequently when they’re not eating out, the report said. Consumption of sausage is at the highest level since at least 1997, it said.