The September consumer price index, which looks at the price movements of goods and services consumed at home, exceeded the same month last year by 3%, excluding fresh food, which fluctuates greatly depending on the weather.
The 3% rate of increase is the first level in 31 years and 1 month, excluding the impact of the consumption tax hike.
With this rise in prices, many people are saying that it is becoming difficult to make ends meet.
A closer look at what items have risen by how much shows that items with high rates of increase include many familiar items such as food and energy, and the sense of burden on household budgets is greater than the figure of 3%.
399 yen socks for 480 yen at stores that sell cheap
A clothing store that has been in business for over 60 years in the shopping district of Kita Ward, Tokyo.
A wave of rising prices is also surging in this store that sells cheap.
In particular, due to the rising prices of cotton and silk, which are used for underwear, the manufacturers who supply the products have contacted us to raise prices one after another.
For example, socks that were sold for 399 yen two months ago are now 480 yen, and winter pajamas, which were 1190 yen last year, are now on sale for 1390 yen.
On the other hand, towels, which are one of the main products, are maintaining the price through corporate efforts, such as continuing negotiations with suppliers.
However, since the impact of the rapid depreciation of the yen is expected to be reflected in purchase prices in the future, we believe that we will have no choice but to raise prices further next year.
Michiyo Muto, a store clerk at Popo Midoriya, said, "We have a lot of customers who are looking for cheap prices, so the price hike is very frustrating. Thirty years ago, our products sold well even if we raised the price, but now, The bustle of the shopping district has faded compared to the past, and I think the situation is completely different."
Child-rearing households “It is difficult to save more”
The burden on household budgets is increasing due to rising food and utility costs, and households raising children are continuing to save money while their income is not increasing, but there are voices saying that it is difficult to reduce spending any further.
A 30-year-old woman living in Kanagawa Prefecture lives with her husband, who works as a caregiver, and her 2-year-old daughter.
Her husband's monthly salary is about 200,000 yen in her take home, and it is said that it has not increased even though her prices continue to rise.
The woman is trying to make ends meet, but she is worried that her food and utility bills have increased significantly.
Women have kept a detailed household account book, such as buying as cheaply as possible and not buying unnecessary things, and have kept their monthly food expenses to about 10,000 yen.
However, due to rising prices, food expenses increased to nearly 20,000 yen in July, and reached about 15,000 yen in September.
Utility costs have also increased by about 20% compared to last year.
For this reason, she wants to keep food costs down somehow, and there are days when she visits up to four stores in one day, including supermarkets and drugstores, in order to purchase cheap bargain items.
However, I feel that it will be difficult to save more as prices are expected to continue to rise in the future.
The woman said, ``I can't cut food costs any more because my nutritional balance is broken.
This year, women have started to make full use of “sampling sites,” where you can buy cheap products offered by companies for advertising and collecting user reviews.
I use it about once a month, and I've gotten dressings and retort food at about half the list price.
In addition, we are cooperating with a masked survey of restaurants to float the cost of meals, etc., and are trying to reduce living expenses.
She also believes that women want to work part-time, but she finds it difficult to find a job for her as she can't find a daycare center near her home.
The woman said, "While my salary is not increasing, my expenses are increasing, so I think that I have no choice but to make small savings steadily. If the price of the product goes up, I want my salary to go up." increase.
“Prices are going up, but pensions are going down.”
As prices continue to rise, many elderly people living on pensions are complaining that their lives are becoming difficult.
Osamu Usui (68), who lives in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, has been running restaurants for more than 30 years, but since the age of 65 he has received a pension and lives alone in an apartment.
His pension, which is paid once every two months, is just over 110,000 yen, and after deducting his rent and utility bills, he needs to keep his monthly food expenses to about 10,000 yen.
However, since the beginning of this year, many food prices have risen, making it difficult to do so.
On the other hand, this year's public pension payment was reduced by 0.4% from last year due to factors such as a decline in the wage level of the working generation.
As a result, Mr. Usui's pension has been reduced by more than 200 yen per month, or about 2,600 yen per year.
As prices continue to rise, he manages to survive by receiving two weeks' worth of food such as rice, canned food, and retort-packed food free of charge from a nearby food bank once a month.
In the future, if the cost of food and utilities continues to rise, he would like to consider working.
Mr. Usui said, "Prices are going up, but pensions are going down. It's an inverse relationship. I'm very grateful for the food from the food bank, but if it runs out, I'll be in trouble. I was talking to
Sense of burden on household finances beyond numbers
The consumer price survey conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications covers 522 items, excluding fresh food.
Looking at the rate of increase from the previous year for each item, there are two major characteristics.
These are the fact that there are many items whose prices have hardly fluctuated, and that the rate of increase in items familiar to daily life is high.
The private think tank "Nissay Research Institute" compiled 522 items by price fluctuation rate for September's consumer price index announced on the 21st, and analyzed the percentage of the total.
According to this, the most common item is "near 0%," where there is almost no price fluctuation from -0.5% to +0.4%, with 112 items, or 21.5%, which is about one-fifth of the total.
This includes taxi fares, transportation fees, nursery school fees, etc.
The proportion of "near 0%" has increased compared to the 1991 average of 16%.
Also, looking at the price fluctuation rate, "near 9%" accounts for 2.5%, and above that accounts for 10.5%, accounting for 13% of the total.
This is even higher than it was 31 years ago.
Items with a high rate of increase include many items such as food and energy, which were affected by soaring raw material prices due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the rapid depreciation of the yen. It is
According to a think tank, in 1991 there was an overall upward trend centered on items with an increase rate of around 2% or 3%. It is also characterized by a bias in the volatility rate, which is in the form of pushing up the rate.
Wages rose 31 years ago, but this time...
The wage situation is also different from 31 years ago.
According to the monthly labor statistics survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, on average in 1991, total cash earnings increased by 4.4% compared to the previous year, and real wages, which take into account price fluctuations, increased by 1.1%. growth exceeded it.
On the other hand, the real wage in August this year was 1.7% lower than the same month of the previous year, and has been negative for five consecutive months, and wages have not caught up with price increases.
Even though the prices of food and energy, which are familiar to our lives, have risen sharply, wages have not risen, and the burden on household budgets is increasing.
Experts have pointed out that if this situation continues, there are concerns that it will have an adverse effect on the economy, such as a decline in personal consumption.
As prices continue to rise, non-standard vegetables become popular
As prices continue to rise, non-standard vegetables that are sold at lower prices than usual due to irregular shapes and other reasons are gaining popularity.
In order to reduce food loss, a wholesale company in Tokyo that sells non-standard vegetables on a membership-based website saw the number of members increase from about 25,000 to about 48,000 in the six months from April to October. In addition to nearly doubling, the number of orders per day has also increased by 1.5 times.
They sell vegetables that are not available in retail stores, such as irregularly shaped or small vegetables.
It is about 50% cheaper than the wholesale price of regular vegetables handled by this company.
At a workshop in the Ota Market, employees packed small damaged okra and small green peppers into cardboard boxes and prepared for shipment.
On the other hand, due to soaring fuel costs, procurement costs such as transportation costs are 5% to 10% higher than a year ago.
Yasuhiro Otake, president of Tokyo Yusei Seika, which operates the website, said, "We are happy if it helps farmers and reduces household costs. The price of purchases is rising, but we try not to reflect it in prices as much as possible. I want to operate without waste," he said.
Second-hand clothing sales increase
As the price of daily necessities continues to rise, second-hand clothing sales are increasing at thrift shops.
A company that operates more than 700 recycle shops nationwide has seen a 20% increase in sales of second-hand autumn/winter clothing from September to mid-October compared to the same period of the previous year. It means that there are places where it is increasing.
Of these, the large stores in Saitama City were used by a wide range of age groups, including the elderly, families, and young people, to purchase clothing on weekdays.
The second-hand clothes sold at this store are on average 30% cheaper than new ones, and many items are less than half the price.
An elderly person who visited the shop said, "I live on a pension, so I wanted to buy something as cheap as possible."
A university student said, "I came here looking for clothes that I can't buy new. Recently, I've been saving money by cooking my own lunch."
Daisuke Shibata, the manager of the Super 2nd Street Omiya Nisshin store, said, “Autumn and winter items under 2,000 yen are selling well.
``Using high prices as an opportunity to raise wages''
Taro Saito, head of the economic research department at the NLI Research Institute, said, ``I believe that the rise in prices is biased because only the prices of goods have risen in the form of passing on the rise in raw material prices to prices
. There is a high rate of increase in household items, especially those familiar with daily life, and the burden on household budgets is increasing."
On top of that, he said, "Until now, deflation has continued for a long time in Japan, where wages have been held down and service prices have not risen.
However, various costs are rising and there is no choice but to raise prices. If we can use this as an opportunity to raise wages, we believe that when the trend of price hikes subsides, there is a possibility that prices will rise steadily.” I'm talking to
Regarding the outlook for the future, he said, "We expect prices to rise in the 3% range through the end of this fiscal year, continuing for about half a year as we pass on the costs of the weaker yen. If the depreciation of the yen comes to a halt and resource prices stabilize, we expect inflation to reach the 2% level next fiscal year."