Ordinarily Japan can’t get enough Cocoichi, but some are saying enough is enough with the price hikes.

Curry rice is one of Japan’s favorite things to eat, and its favorite restaurant to eat it at is Cocoichibanya. Also known as Cocoichi, the chain, which was founded in 1978, has over 1,200 branches in Japan, making it the country’s most prominent curry specialty restaurant by far.

But while the taste of Cocoichi’s curry remains as beloved as ever, the chain has experienced a substantial drop in its number of customers, and the reason why appears, pretty clearly, to be its rising prices.

Cocoichi has a semi-customizable menu, in that customers can choose the type and spiciness of roux, amount of rice, and toppings for their curry rice. The prices for all of them, though, have been creeping higher and higher. The chain raised its prices twice in 2022, increasing prices for roux/rice and toppings by an average of 5.9 and 3.8 percent, respectively, in June of that year, and then again by 7.4 and 5.4 percent in December. Customers proved largely willing to eat those increased costs, but another round of price hikes came in August of 2024, raising curry/roux by an average of 10.5 percent and toppings by 13.5 percent, and those seem to be too much for many diners to swallow.

Between September of 2024 and February of 2025, the chain recorded a 5.2-percent drop in its number of total customers, compared to that period in the previous year. Customer numbers for this fiscal year, which started in March, are even worse so far, with 7.5 percent fewer customers in March and 6 percent fewer customers in April (compared to those months in 2024).

It’s not surprising that Cocoichi has raised its prices. Inflation has been accelerating in Japan over the past year, especially for foodstuffs. The country is also in the middle of a rice shortage, with prices for the grain having roughly doubled compared to a year ago, and when the price of rice goes up, so too, naturally will the price of curry rice. However, for generations curry rice has been seen as a hearty but also inexpensive meal in Japanese culinary culture, a favorite of hungry students, hard-working blue-collar employees, and others looking to leave a restaurant with both their stomach and their wallet comfortably full. To many, curry rice is the sort of thing you should be able to order without being concerned about the cost at all, but with wage increases not keeping pace with rising prices in Japan, and many workers not seeing their wages increase at all, Cocoichi’s repeated price increases seem to have brought its curry rice to a point that an increasing number of prospective customers are balking at.

So how much does a Cocoichi meal cost these days? Again, as mentioned above, there’s a lot of customization that can be done in ordering, all of which affects the price. A basic plate of just rice and roux, though, now costs 646 yen (US$4.50) for pork-based curry, and 794 yen for beef-based curry. Just about everyone, though, adds some sort of meat and/or vegetables as toppings, though, and the average amount spent by a single diner at Cocoichi is now 1,208 yen. With the smallest denomination of yen bill being the 1,000-yen bill, for many consumers 1,000 yen is a significant tipping point, and while 1,208 yen may not qualify Cocoichi as luxury dining, it also means that, in many people’s minds, it’s no longer an inexpensive meal either.

It’s worth noting that Cocoichi’s customer numbers slipping hasn’t hurt its bottom line, at least not yet, since in 2024 the chain’s operating profits were up 4.5 percent compared to 2023. However, that figure includes the profits from the first half of 2024, before the latest price increase and subsequent customer losses, and with curry rice’s image as good, honest (and affordable) grub, plus Cocoichi’s casual restaurant ambiance, there’s likely a limit to how much success the chain can have chasing a bigger-spending yet numerically smaller clientele.

Source: Nikkan Spa via Itai News, Cocoichibanya
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