JAPAN: Cash-strapped Japanese businessmen give up eating out and make their own lunchboxes amid recession

Record ID: 465620

  • Title: JAPAN: Cash-strapped Japanese businessmen give up eating out and make their own lunchboxes amid recession
  • Date: 26th April 2009
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (APRIL 23, 2009) (REUTERS) "ABC COOKING STUDIO + M" SIGN MAN WALKING INTO COOKING STUDIO MAN TAKING OFF TIE AND PUTTING ON COOKING APRON MAN TIGHTENING APRON INSIDE OF COOKING STUDIO MAN KNEADING DOUGH MORE OF INSIDE OF STUDIO MAN AND WOMAN COOKING AT STUDIO MAN LISTENING TO INSTRUCTOR SCREEN SHOWING INSTRUCTOR'S COOKING AREA MAN AND WOMAN COOKING STUDENT TAPPING GLASSES AND SAYING "CHEERS" OVER FINISHED FOOD CUP OF SALSA (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) 34-YEAR-OLD BUSINESSMAN, KENICHI MACHIDA, SAYING: "There's of course the feeling of accomplishment when you come home and make your own lunchbox. More than anything, it's quite economical and you can save money. There's also quite a few more people doing the same thing around me as well." COOKING STUDENTS EATING AT TABLE (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) COOKING SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR, EMI SATO, SAYING: "In Japan in the past, the kitchen was a place for the wife and it was rare for men to help out. It was so that men working until late and then coming home was the norm." FOUR COOKING STUDENTS SHAPING GROUND BEEF MAN SHAPING GROUND BEEF (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) COOKING SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR, EMI SATO, SAYING: "The thing that stuck out at first was the lack of men, but in the last six months or year there's been quite an increase of people coming here." INSIDE OF COOKING STUDIO MAN LOOKING AT INSTRUCTOR WOMAN COOKING STUDENT CUTTING DOUGH AS MAN LOOKS ON KITCHEN UTENSILS
  • Embargoed: 11th May 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVADX4LHHWRXYIFMQ8K1AWTVGQBW
  • Story Text: It's almost lunch time in a busy district in central Tokyo, where hungry Japanese head out to grab lunches.
    However, as recession looms over Japan, more and more cash-strapped Japanese businessmen, traditionally rarely seen in their own kitchen, give up eating out and turn to making their own lunchboxes, called "bentos".
    At one internet company in Tokyo, a group of young office workers in their twenties and thirties get up before dawn, make their own lunchboxes and carry them out to a meeting room before noon.
    This is a typical routine for the company's "Bento Boys" club members as they show off and compete with the best looking and tasting lunchboxes.
    A popular menu consists of rice, vegetables and meat dishes neatly compartmentalised in the bento box.
    Hayato Hoshi, 31-year-old businessman and leader of the club at paperboy & co. (editors note lower case spelling), said since the global financial meltdown, more employees are joining the club to save money.

    "Well, it's quite economic and I thought it was nice. If you eat around here every day, it would cost about 6000 yen (or 60 USD) per week," Hoshi told Reuters during the club gathering at lunch time recently.
    Each member spends about $3 to $5 U.S. dollars to make their lunchboxes and some thrifty cooks mark their calendars for the big supermarket bargain sales to cut more on food expenses.
    According to the research and marketing team of the Japanese food products company Ajinomoto Co. Inc, on average a Japanese man spends about $8 U.S. dollars at lunch and $13 U.S. dollars for dinner.
    Thanks to these savings and the economic slowdown, the club, which started from less than a handful of members, has now grown into a bigger club with sometimes 20 male workers turning up with their lunchboxes at noon.
    At Tokyo's Tokyu Hands, one of the biggest hobby department stores in Japan, more male office workers are flocking to the store's cooking wares and kitchen appliances section.
    According to the store, sales of lunchboxes has gone up 160 percent from last year and is expected to increase towards the summer.

    "There has been an increase in designs for lunch boxes from various companies, even those who had products geared towards women, and now there are more designs that men can carry around as well," Keiko Sasaki, sales and marketing at Tokyu Hands store, told Reuters.
    Another popular hobby store in Tokyo, the Loft, also experienced a 226 percent increase in the sales of lunchboxes in April compared to the same month last year.
    According to the stores, popular lunchboxes for men are slightly bigger and simple in design compared to those that are often purchased by female customers.
    Each lunchbox costs about $25 U.S. dollars on average, which often comes with a set of chopsticks.
    But as traditionally Japanese men are rarely brought up to learn to cook, many have had to learn the basics from scratch.
    At ABC Cooking school in Tokyo they've seen an marked increase in men joining their courses.
    Kenichi Machida, a 34-year-old businessman is one such man who takes off his business suit in the evenings in exchange for an apron as he tries to hone his skills at the weekly evening courses so he can make better lunch boxes.

    "There's of course the feeling of accomplishment when you come home and make your own lunchbox. More than anything, it's quite economical and you can save money. There's also quite a few more people doing the same thing around me as well," he said after completing a course on how to make a guacamole and taco dish.

    "In Japan in the past, the kitchen was a place for the wife and it was rare for men to help out. It was so that men working until late and then coming home was the norm," Emi Sato, cooking school instructor, told Reuters. "The thing that stuck out at first was the lack of men, but in the last six months or year there's been quite an increase of people coming here," she added.
    More men in the kitchen may also be good news for Japanese women.
    With the Japanese government hoping to increase the number of working women, men will have to know more and more their way around the cooking appliances.
    Currently only 55 percent of all Japanese women work, compared with 62 percent in the United States.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register