Keisuke Honda ignites the “fair price” debate… Can we really afford ¥2,000 for ramen?

How much can you pay for ramen?

Former Japanese national team soccer player Keisuke Honda tweeted on Twitter, ” Ramen shop, 730 yen is too cheap for that delicious ram en. The “ramen fair price controversy” erupted when Tasuku Honda, a former representative of Japan’s national soccer team, posted the following words on Twitter: “730 yen is too cheap for such a delicious ramen.

Can you pay 2,000 yen for a bowl of ramen or not?　While the debate is still raging on the Internet, with celebrities and others voicing their opinions, there is one topic that has been an issue in the ramen industry as a whole for many years regarding the fair price of ramen: the “1,000 yen barrier. That is the “1,000-yen barrier.

I can’t spend more than 1,000 yen for ramen. In a sense, it is the “long-cherished wish” of the entire industry to break down this consumer mentality. The price range for the same noodles is as follows: spaghetti chain “Yomenya Goemon” is in the 1000-1100 yen range, “Kamakura Pasta” in the 1200-1300 yen range, and udon chain “Tsurutontan” in the 1100-1700 yen range.

If we look at the individual restaurant level, there are plenty of restaurants that serve even higher-priced noodles such as pasta, udon, and soba, but there are very few COPY00 ramen restaurants. Except for products with additional toppings such as “Zenkitate” and limited-time-only products, there have been no successful examples of ramen with a unit price over 1,000 yen for a long time.

One episode that illustrates this difficulty is the challenge posed by Ippudo, a chain of tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen restaurants. It was 16 years ago. In April 2007, Ippudo introduced “Kiwami Shin-mi,” a ramen priced at 1,300 yen (excluding tax), as the third ramen item on its menu after “Shiromaru Gen-mi” and “Akamaru Sakane-mi,” which were its two signature items at the time.

The founder, Shigemi Kawahara, who is also the chairman of Chikugen Holdings, developed Kiwami Shinkyoku with extraordinary passion. He took pride in his company’s position as the price leader in the ramen industry.

Ippudo was founded in 1985. In an interview, Chairman Kawahara said, “Ippudo started out at 400 yen when 250 to 300 yen for a bowl of ramen was the norm in Hakata. As we raised the unit price to 500 yen and then to 600 yen, the ramen industry in Kyushu as a whole began to improve” (“Ramen Book for Professionals 2,” published by Shibata Shoten ).

Ippudo has expanded its network of stores throughout Japan, making Hakata ramen a national specialty. Ippudo’s stylish interior and exterior design is one of its unique features, and the company has also focused on enhancing its service capabilities, expanding the customer base of its ramen stores from its traditional predominantly male clientele to include women and families.

A barrier that Ippudo could not overcome

Ippudo thought that the purpose of increasing the unit price was to “obtain funds for store investments and labor costs,” and that it was necessary for the development of the ramen industry to demonstrate a successful model for such an increase. One of the goal lines for increasing the unit price was to break down the “1,000-yen barrier. This is why we were the first to introduce “Kyokushinmiri” as one of our standard menu items, but as a result, “Kyokushinmiri” disappeared from the menu in less than two years.

There were a number of factors that contributed to its disappearance, including the fact that it was a complicated product to prepare, which placed a heavy burden on operations, and the fact that the number of orders did not increase much.

However, Chairman Kawahara’s ideas have been passed on to the next generation of ramen operators. One of them is Hiroto Nakamura, president of AFURI Co.

The first AFURI restaurant opened in Ebisu, Tokyo, in 2003, and has since opened 15 restaurants in Japan and 12 overseas, including the United States and Singapore. The price of its signature product, Yuzu Shio Ramen, was 850 yen when it was first established; the price has been revised five times, with a price increase from 980 yen to 1080 yen in June 2018, crossing the 1,000 yen barrier, and a further price increase to 1,180 yen in October 2010.

President Nakamura clearly states the purpose of the price increase as “to ensure healthy payroll resources,” explaining that “1,200 yen per hour for part-time workers is the benchmark for this, but the main principle of pricing is to achieve this, including improving the treatment of full-time employees” ( Shibata Shoten, August 2019 issue of Gekkan Shokudo).

The “usual ramen store” is in a difficult situation

Of course, President Nakamura was more than aware of the “1,000-yen barrier. In addition to refining the quality of the products to match the price, he has created added value by adding a story to each ingredient, such as preparing the soup with water from Mt. In addition, they selected locations such as Ebisu, Harajuku, Roppongi, and Nakameguro, where “setting up a restaurant is a value-added experience.

By implementing a solid branding strategy, they were able to break down the 1,000-yen barrier. Conversely, the 1,000-yen barrier is so thick that it cannot be broken down without going to such lengths.

Ramen Iida Shoten in Yugawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, will raise the price of its mainstay “Shoyura Ramen” and “Shiora Ramen” to 1,600 yen in May 2022, attracting much attention.

However, all of these ramen stores target “target customers” who go out of their way to visit the store from distant places. For ramen stores that can be used on a daily basis, ¥1,000 still stands as a high barrier. As the cost of ingredients continues to rise, some stores are probably trying to keep their prices below the 900-yen level by trimming profits and labor costs.

Price hikes are painful for customers. However, ramen stores are also facing a serious situation, as prices of flour, oil, gas, and other necessities have risen markedly. This is even more so for stores that compete on the low-priced side. Mr. Honda’s statement at the beginning of this report is quite important in light of the “bleak future” in which the bottom of the “national food” market will collapse.