School students walk along a street in Tokyo on July 4, 2022. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU AFP TOKYO For months, Kazumi Sato, a nutritionist at a middle school in eastern Tokyo, has received notices about hikes in ingredient prices.
Local authorities are loath to pass the burden of pricier school lunches on to the students because of the economic hardships many of the students' families face. That has meant constant adjusting lunch recipes for Sato, so that Senju Aoba Junior High School's kitchen can stay within budget.
She told Reuters at the school that I try to include seasonal fruits once or twice a month.
Sato says she substitutes fresh fruit, which is expensive in Japan, with jelly or a sliver of hand-made cake. She's taken to using lots of bean sprouts as a cheap alternative wherever possible, but worries she'll run out of ideas if prices keep rising.
She said that she doesn't want to disappoint the children with what they might feel is a sad meal.
In Japan, a country unaccustomed to steep price rises, inflation is becoming an increasingly political issue, and many households are feeling the squeeze.
Soaring food prices affect an important source of sustenance for lower income Japanese families.
Sato says these days an 18 litre can of cooking oil costs 1,750 yen $12.85 more than it did a year ago, while the price of onions has doubled. There is only so much nutritionists can do before schools are forced to raise prices on their families, because the government imposes strict nutritional requirements for public schools.
Authorities want to avoid that, knowing poorer families won't skimp on nutritious meals at home. Some children return to school from a summer break as they are seen as being skinnier, educators and public officials say.
Lunches at public middle schools cost 334 yen, of which 303 yen are covered by families.
As part of the relief measures, the national government said it would provide funds to help schools absorb some of the rising costs for meals in April. Adachi ward plans to use those extra budget to avoid passing the burden on to their families.
Sato worries about the possibility of further energy and food price hikes, especially towards the end of the school year when the allocated funds start to run out.
She said that the rainy season ended earlier this year, so there could be a big impact on vegetables. I'm worried about what the prices will be like in the fall and beyond.