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The story
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced that, as of late September, lettuce prices were up 50% and cabbage prices up 40% compared to the seasonal average. The main cause cited is a temperature drop and lack of sunlight from prolonged rain. On 5ch threads, posters shared concrete examples of the price hikes, such as ‘150-yen red leaf lettuce is now 400 yen’ and ‘a head of cabbage went from 158 yen to 380 yen.’ At the same time, some pointed out that while rice price spikes tend to draw heavy criticism of JA (the agricultural co-op) and distributors, vegetable price spikes rarely provoke the same backlash — sparking a discussion about the different ways these prices are determined.
Published 10/6 (Tue) 19:31
FNN Prime Online (Fuji TV Network)
Long rains are hitting leafy vegetables.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Cheap! Big sale!! Cucumbers 78 yen each
That's what the sign at the supermarket said, but nobody was buying them
Even below market price, cucumbers just aren't worth it — you get the same potassium, vitamin K/C, and fiber from other vegetables
That's way too expensive no matter how you look at it.
If anything, it was too cheap until now
In an era when plenty of people drop 500,000-1,000,000 yen into their 'numa' (deep hobby/fandom obsessions), 100-yen lettuce was never going to last
Red leaf lettuce that used to be 150 yen, 200 at most, is now 400 yen lately
If other vegetables get pricey, I just pick these instead
If lettuce is going for 500 yen, you'd pick the 100-yen pea shoots too — pour some dressing on them and they're perfectly edible
One head of cabbage gets you 5 uses, one bag of pea shoots gets you 1 use
One cabbage = five bags of pea shoots
I never order tanmen anyway
Where I live, half a head was 200 yen
Prices have been climbing visibly this past week
About 25 years ago, during a bad-weather winter, napa cabbage went for over 1,000 yen a head
A quarter-cut piece was around 300 yen
I remember 1,000-yen lettuce making the news about 25 years ago too
Open-field farmers are basically gamblers betting against the weather
It's not an honest, stable trade
Thought 'under 200 yen!' but then the head turns out tiny
Even among designated vegetables, some crops like potatoes still get jacked up in price
At the end of the day, farmers go soft without imports creating real price competition
Can't even make okonomiyaki anymore
Substitute with bean sprouts
It's not about nutrition, it's just a food that's barely used in cooking anymore
People these days probably don't even keep a nukadoko (rice-bran pickling bed)
Just make quick pickles (asazuke), that works fine
I used to eat lettuce or cabbage every morning, but it's too expensive to buy now
Mizuna's expensive too — the easy, cheap vegetables are disappearing
I don't get why that's a problem
There's plenty of cheap Chinese produce out there
Stuff like pea shoots, you can harvest them multiple times
If you're broke but still want salad, pea shoots are the move right now
How does rice end up tripling to 6,000 yen for 5kg?
Where I am it's more than doubled
Cabbage that used to be 158 yen a head is now 380
Probably not… depends on the soil conditions, but root rot sets in
Watercress?
It grows wild like crazy in some river and people just toss it out, right?
Vegetable prices spike → 'Ugh, this is rough~' 'Wish it'd get cheaper'
What is this lol. Do the usual chorus of 'destroy JA!' 'cut out the middlemen!' like always
Rice prices are set by 'gaisankin' (the provisional advance payment farmers get from JA), but vegetable prices are set by market auction
Saying 'rice prices are decided by gaisankin' — you might want to go check what gaisankin actually means first lol
Background and Key Points of Debate
Leafy vegetable prices are highly sensitive to weather, and there have been past cases of price spikes caused by long rains and lack of sunlight. One thread comment even noted that ‘1,000-yen lettuce made the news about 25 years ago too,’ pointing to a similar weather-driven cause this time around. Where opinions diverged was over the fact that while rice price spikes triggered an outpouring of criticism like ‘destroy JA’ and ‘cut out the middlemen,’ vegetable price spikes drew almost none of that same backlash. This comes down to a structural difference that’s easy to conflate: rice prices are set through an institutional mechanism called ‘gaisankin’ (a provisional advance payment), whereas vegetable prices are determined daily through market auctions. It’s also easy to overlook that Chinese-imported vegetable prices rose at the same time, meaning it isn’t only domestic produce that got more expensive.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Flash+) thread “Lettuce Up 50%, Cabbage Up 40%: Leafy Vegetables Spike in Late September Due to Temperature Drop and Lack of Sunlight from Long Rains — Ministry of Agriculture.”
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