Japan’s November Price Hikes Hit 1,477 Food Items as Power Bills Set Records

Photo: shampoorobot, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (file photo, 2011). A TEPCO household electricity meter.

Japanese households started November with another round of grocery increases and the highest electricity bills on record at most big utilities. Japan price hikes in November cover 1,477 food and drink items, credit research firm Teikoku Databank said Oct. 30, and seven of the country’s 10 major power companies set record household rates for November use, largely because Middle East tensions have pushed up the cost of imported fuel.

The food increases took effect Nov. 1. Teikoku Databank, which tracks pricing plans at 195 major food makers, said the monthly count fell below 3,000 items for the first time in three months, and it described the autumn wave of increases as having paused. Even so, November’s total is about 10 times the 150 items repriced in November 2025 and the second-highest November figure since 2022, the firm said in its monthly price-revision survey.

Which foods cost more in November

Condiments led the list with 644 items, mostly sauces and mayonnaise, according to the survey. Alcohol and soft drinks accounted for 417 items, including coffee and other drinks sold in plastic bottles. That category had 1,471 items in October, when a liquor tax change lifted prices of low-malt beer and similar beer-style drinks. Processed foods made up 275 items, led by canned seafood and baby food.

Teikoku Databank counts an item again each time it is repriced, and it includes “shrinkflation,” where a maker keeps the price but cuts the package size. Its average increase of 17% per hike uses the maximum rate given in each announcement.

The firm said 2026 has now topped 20,000 repriced items for a second straight year, with 20,327 increases known for January through December. About 8,000 of them, roughly 40% of the year’s total, were concentrated in September and October, the Sankei Shimbun and the survey said. Processed foods such as frozen meals and packaged rice had the most increases this year, at 6,968, more than 40% above the category’s 4,791 in 2025.

By the numbers: what the data show

By TBR’s calculation from Teikoku Databank figures, November’s 1,477 items are 1,327 more than a year earlier, or 9.8 times the November 2025 count. The 2026 total so far is 282 items, or 1.4%, below 2025’s full-year 20,609, and the firm expects December to be small, leaving the year roughly level with last year. Both years are far above 2024, when 12,520 items were repriced; the jump from 2024 to 2025 was 8,089 items, or about 65%.

The reasons companies give have shifted. Raw-material costs were cited for 91.7% of this year’s increases, still the top cause but the lowest annual share since the firm started tabulating causes in 2023, down from 96.2% at the same point of 2025. Labor costs were cited for 51.5%, a record and almost double the 26.5% for all of 2024. The weak yen fell to 8.2% from 12.4%. Energy held at 63.9%.

A new category, the “Middle East situation,” accounted for 27.5% of increases. Teikoku Databank said higher oil and naphtha prices raised food-related costs, but that the “naphtha shock” that began in March is showing signs of peaking. Causes overlap, so the shares add up to more than 100%.

Record power bills for November use

The 10 major utilities announced household rates for November use, billed in December, on Oct. 29. Seven of them, including Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), Chubu, Tohoku, Hokuriku, Chugoku, Shikoku and Okinawa, set records for a second straight month, reflecting higher prices for imported liquefied natural gas, the Nikkei reported.

TEPCO’s standard household bill rises 177 yen from October to 9,738 yen, according to the Nikkei and Fuji News Network. That model household has a 30-amp contract and uses 260 kilowatt-hours a month, TEPCO says in its fuel-cost adjustment notice, which adds that it is also revising rates from Nov. 1 to reflect changes in grid charges. All four major city-gas suppliers raised November rates as well; Tokyo Gas’s standard household bill climbs 230 yen to 6,718 yen, Fuji News Network said. By TBR’s calculation, those are increases of about 1.9% for TEPCO and 3.5% for Tokyo Gas.

Takaichi’s winter subsidies and the gasoline taper

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Oct. 29 that the government will subsidize electricity and gas used from December through February, saving a standard household about 7,000 yen in total, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. The electricity discount will be 1 yen per kilowatt-hour in December and 4.5 yen in January and February. For TEPCO’s 260-kilowatt-hour model home, that works out to about 260 yen in December and 1,170 yen a month after that, by TBR’s calculation. The money will come from a 2.5 trillion yen reserve for Middle East-related measures in the fiscal 2026 extra budget. The government also ran power and gas subsidies in January-March and July-September this year, the Yomiuri said.

The gasoline subsidy will shrink. The government holds the national average price near 170 yen a liter and plans to raise that target by about 5 yen a month from December, the paper said; the subsidy had recently topped 50 yen a liter. “It is strictly a measure to cushion sudden changes,” Takaichi said, adding that with the Middle East outlook unclear, the government would move to a sustainable system (translated from Japanese). She declined to say how long the increases would last or when the subsidy would end.

The same Middle East fuel shock helped oil majors’ earnings; see TBR’s report on Exxon’s and Chevron’s third-quarter profits. For recent Japanese data, see the Bank of Japan’s Oct. 30 rate hold and September factory output. In Massachusetts, state regulators have approved winter gas rates for the season.

Teikoku Databank plans to publish its December price-hike count on Nov. 30.

Sources

• Teikoku Databank: price-revision survey of 195 major food makers, November 2026 (Japanese)
• Nikkei: November power bills hit record at TEPCO and six others (Japanese)
• Fuji News Network: November electricity and gas rates rise (Japanese)
• TEPCO Energy Partner: fuel-cost adjustment notice, November 2026 (Japanese)
• Yomiuri Shimbun via Yahoo Japan: winter power and gas subsidies; gasoline benchmark to rise (Japanese)

Additional sources

• Sankei Shimbun: 1,477 items to rise in November (Japanese)
• Jiji Press via Nippon.com: food consumption-tax cut bill in the lower house. Takaichi’s plan to cut the consumption tax on food to 1% from 8% for two years, which the Yomiuri says is scheduled from April, is still before parliament.