Japan’s most popular curry rice restaurant chain losing customers as it raises prices

Just another victims of Japanese stubborn rice tariffs .

Not worries at all for me. The Nepalese place in my neighborhood that has a 1,000 yen curry set, with lassi, salad and nan, that I would choose even if Coco curry were free.

MSG -loaded junk. Gross.

Last night I made a Butter Chicken Curry, less than ¥1,000 for two of us.

Of course, watch and learn from McDonald's.

"" MSG -loaded junk. Gross. ""

yes, nothing like home cooking.

Simple rule anything that is processed has to be injected with preservatives and additives to keep it alive and kicking, from Meats, to vegetables the main cause of cancers is PROCESSED FOODS.

Two things, first Japanese were really spoiled for a long time, as restaurants and supermarkets barely raised prices. So they got used to paying the same thing for a long time. Now that inflation has hit and shops have no choice but to raise the prices, people feel the pain, especially as their salaries are not keeping up with inflation.

As for curry being a cheap and filling dish, I always felt that it was a dish made at home on the cheap, for a family that would also have leftovers for another meal. Most people I talk to never eat curry outside!

Most people I talk to never eat curry outside!

Me too. But I also realize that I’m out of touch with a significant segment of society that eats curry outside.

This chain itself has over 1,200 branches that wouldn’t be around if they weren’t producing a profit.

If i remember correctly, MSG is the flavour umami derived from traditional broth of (konbu) seaweed. Nothing wrong with it.

So all you progressives who use the word umami, are actually referring to monosodium glutamate (MSG).

And no it doesn't affect the brain at all you wont get headaches or chest pain. That's been disproven long ago, but the stigma still persists among these same probably vegan 'progressives'.

Artificial laboratory created chemical flavours and colour are some of the real enemies. Along with palm oil. And cocoichi curry uses many in abundance.

Its not bad, but not fantastically good either. Too easy to make at home to rave about it.

While more than happy to give my opinion on curry, my main opinion is that a 7% drop in customers with little effect on the bottom line is not newsworthy.

Haven’t been there in years, but for the longest time, you could get a decent sized katsu plate for under 800 yen. That was a great deal for what it was.

Now it’s over 1200 yen? That would be ok, if minimum wage was at least 1500 yen.

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

Right here, greedy, exploitative price gouging, putting self-interests above, to disregard customers, in a time of shortages.

Walk past Cocoichi, they serves nothing less

Nothing wrong with CocoIchiban, but is is expensive these days. I have it as a bit of a treat, and I see it as being a different thing to curry at home.

And, for the record, there is nothing at all wrong with MSG. It was scandalized for xenophobic reasons and never shook off the reputation in the United States.

Anyone who expects food prices incuding those of popular chain restaurants to remain at the deflated cheap prices they were for around the last two decades has no idea about basic economics.

Japanese food/snack/beverage prices were underpriced for around the previous 2 decades and are now catching up due to different realities. Some people know nothing about supply chains whether domestic or international, how inflation works, completely ignore the fact that businesses that are real businesses unlike speaking your own language 'teaching' in eikaiwa have big costs and cumulative wages.

Just reading comments by foreigners on different websites related to Japan including those crying about onigiri going up in price and 'now becoming a luxury food' shows that many of them are out of touch with reality and too broke to live in Japan.

Just another victims of Japanese stubborn rice tariffs .

exactly! and the irony of it is, its crushing a Japanese chain and making it lose Japanese customers.

I can buy curry at the supermarket and just boil it in water for ¥100. It tastes the same.

Never eaten at the place and don't care if it exists or not .

I think the issue is not that people can't afford it but that it seems too expensive for curry. Cocoichi is alright but not something I would pay 1200 yen for.

With so mom and pop restaurants offering a better tasting option for the same or less, I can’t see ducking into a chain only to pay more for corporate food.

Went there once a while back and even then I felt prices were relatively high for what it is. If I'm at work and I need a quick grab, curry is always a quick meal I can eat but I always choose Matsuya as their prices are cheaper and the taste suits me better.

I do enjoy cooking curry at home like others are mentioning. Experimenting with all the different spices is fun!

I have never understood why people like this place? It's a generic taste and boring. Cook your own

Never understood coco. Went once years ago, watery curry w just a speck or two of meat and veggies. Even the presentation on the menu is unappealing. I always go to the local Indian/Nepal curry spot.

I like to eat curry outdoors trying different cultures curries like Thai, Chinese, Pakistani, Indian, Malayan, Japanese etc as the taste is different and method of cooking.

People who say they prefer the Indian, Nepali, etc. curry shops over Coco seem to miss the point. Coco is a Japanese curry shop, not an Indian curry shop. Its fine for what it is, and having 1200 shops pretty much testifies to that. But uninformed food snobbery abounds. Saying that a local Indian curry shop is better than Coco is like saying that Italian food is better than French. They are two different cuisines.

Can't even afford a bowl of crappy curry. The demise of Japan.

Our local chain of shokudos still offers japanese style curry rice at a much more affordable price. They serve bigger portions, and the food is far better quality than cocos. If they can keep prices low without the economies of scale their larger competitors have, cocos can lower their prices.

my local Indian curry shop. 850 for lunch 1000yen dinner,

your choice of curry , drink, small piece of tandori chicken and all you can eat Nan bread, 1 is plenty as theyre huge, eat 2 and youre stuffed

Their margin is way too high. They hire foreigners mostly in tokyo at low wages pay nothing in benefits and even before their price hike they were expensive. Now it’s just ridiculous. Any excuse to raise prices. Their margin is amazing for what you get.

WhatsAllThisThenToday  07:17 am JST

MSG -loaded junk. Gross.

The risks of MSG were a fallacy. Nothing more than an urban myth perpetuated by bad science and the ignorant.

Thankfully, while the fear of MSG continues to echo online, much of the negative hype has died away. It’s still worthwhile reflecting, however, on how such shoddy science became an article of faith in medicine. Kwok, Schaumburg, and Olney may have sincerely wanted to help people. But their story shows that even scientists are suspectable to rumors, hysteria, and urban legends that defy common sense.

https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-rotten-science-behind-the-msg-scare/

What do you expect, if you increase price and margin much faster than what their food items are costing and people’s incomes are not increasing. Their prices would have been this high even if the rice price did not go up. No better proof than the fact that their profits are increasing. I certainly don’t eat there as often as I used to and also don’t enjoy it as much, because it is not an everyday priced meal anymore and you cannot enjoy ordering what you want, but rather have to watch what you order to get the price down to a reasonable amount. Partly nations economics and partly corporate greed.

Horrible muck dished up at that place. Surprised it took so long for people to eat elsewhere.

RE: 'you should cook at home'.

No, I am paying money for other people to do it for me and tidy up afterwards. I am a busy person and I work hard. I don't eat there every night, I'll go there when I'm finishing late. This is not intended to be the finest gourmet cuisine, it is meant for people who want a filling and satisfying feed after work. If you have a decent job, even 1200 is not all that much really. You never come away from CocoIchi feeling like you need to eat more.

If you have a decent job, even 1200 is not all that much really.

The majority of people in Japan would appear to disagree.

Nothing beats Indian curry, but I do like CoCo Ichiban once in a while. Here is the biggest problem with Japan's "rice crisis"... the government announced that foreign rice imports are increasing and will increase further "to address the ricing prices of rice and lack of it". Now, they also announced they will double tariffs on said imports from what they were April of LAST fiscal year, so they are saying about ¥5000 / 5kg. This, they add, will push customers to buy domestic rice as it will be cheaper.

THAT is their answer to increased costs! Increasing costs further so you just buy the cheaper of the jacked up prices. Only in Japan.

and a side note, my local curry shop hasn’t raised prices since before covid and the are doing just fine. They are ½ the cost of coco. Seems coco should fire some top paid salaried staff

We all want the minimal wage to be increased, but people bemoan paying for a meal in a restaurant in modern prices. The default position should be that it is a luxury to eat out. The cost of the meal contributes to the staff salaries, the rent, the bills... that's before the cost of the actual meal. CocoIchiban curry is not known for just the rice and the roux, they almost always including some kind of topping, which of course bumps up the price. You're not getting that at home with your supermarket packets.

…for many consumers 1,000 yen is a significant tipping point…

This is the same for me. Any meal over ¥1000 is no longer considered a cheap eat.

I can understand it’s tough as a business, but CoCoIchi will always be compared against other food chains.

While not a specialty curry restaurant, Sukiya has a pretty good curry menu under ¥1000, for example.

For foreigners, the 1000¥ threshold does not exist.

For Japanese, it has been now culturally ingrained in the decision to continue going to a restaturant.

Japanese yen dropping will not make prices remain low, except for your local Indian/Nepali who surely do not have same social costs to pay...

It’s not surprising that Cocoichi has raised its prices. Inflation has been accelerating in Japan over the past year, especially for foodstuffs.

It is also unsurprising that customer numbers drop as prices increase because many will be preparing more food at home where it is cheaper to do so. The ratios are directly connected.

Drop prices back to 2022 before you put them up and see the number of customers swell to get a good deal.

No, Japan does not currently impose a tariff on U.S. Calrose rice. Japan's "minimum access" agreement with the WTO allows for 770,000 metric tons of rice to be imported annually without tariffs. U.S. rice, including Calrose, falls under this tariff-free import quota.

No Japanese will eat Calrose because it tastes like a speech straight out Trump mouth.

No Japanese will eat Calrose because it tastes like a speech straight out Trump mouth.

Nobody is that angry anyway.

I can buy curry at the supermarket and just boil it in water for ¥100. It tastes the same.

Go upmarket to curries that cost 300-350 and I'll agree the taste is as good as basic CocoIchi. Many of them in that price bracket also come in a pouch that can be heated as is in the microwave, so even less hassle. Note that among other chain eateries, it is essentially impossible to make Marugame level udon or Gindaco level takoyaki for half price at home. In that sense CocoIchi is doing nothing special.

Non-posh Indian food in Japan is definitely up there in the value for money stakes. I'm a big fan of lamb/mutton and quite often inaka Indians will make it for you even if it is not on the menu. It's always worth asking.

fwiw, I believe the CocoIchi shacho is a 22 year old lady who was previously their youngest store manager.

It is not only the curry rice restaurants but also Gyudon restaurants raised prices. They are no more cheap and fast where low income people can go often.

It HAS gotten way more expensive than it used to be.

In the early 90s, I coincidentally wandered into one when I was in Tokyo and paid just smidge over 300 yen for a tonkatsu curry. I was pleasantly shocked at how cheap it was for such delicious J-curry.

Fast forward ten years to the early 2000s, and I was eating their all the time for still just about 400 yen for most of the dishes there.

Then around five to seven years ago, I found myself paying closer to 700 yen for the same plates I used to pay 400 for. It felt like a big jump.

Now, I can't get out the door for lesson than 1,000. Going from 300 to over 1,000 yen for the same dishes is massive for a populace, including me, that makes about the same amount of money as they did at the beginning of the 90s.

I've lost my fast-food go-to spot. There's something to be said for economic stagnation of the 90s-00s-10s. Prices were stable.

Speed. MAC has become a cheaper place today. It was the other way around years ago. At MAC, you will find many old folks together with youngsters. They stay long hours there using MAC as coffee shops.

There's something to be said for economic stagnation of the 90s-00s-10s. Prices were stable.

I completely agree; life was far better for the bottom 90% of society than it is now. Other commenters were saying that Japanese customers were 'spoiled' by not having their government devalue their currency and their corporations greedily raise prices for years. I think 'spoiled' is the wrong word -- that's how a developed society that takes care of its people should be: stable, steady prices and affordable goods for all classes, with no danger of falling behind if you're at the mercy of what your employer pays you. The rich were still rich, but everyone else wasn't becoming poor.

Japan was a more prosperous, and fairer, society for those decades. Now we're back to the top X% living well and telling everyone else it's their own fault they're falling behind while the government and corporations are the ones making them poorer.

They hire foreigners mostly in tokyo at low wages pay nothing in benefits and even before their price hike they were expensive.

Years ago Cocoichi used to be a place where you could go for quick, cheap, hearty meal with good service and cleanliness guaranteed. Nowadays? Listless service, decline in overall quality, increase in price, dubious cleanliness and I’m also required to order using their tablet rather than speaking to an actual person. I choose to spend my money elsewhere.

No to curry which is loaded with either lard or palm fat. I'll have Indian anyday, although the vegan soup curry they serve during winter isn't bad.

Overpriced. If you get no 10 you pay more instead of getting a reward. Not a customer anymore

1,208 yen is the equivilent of $8.36 here in the US. I would gladly pay that much for a curry dinner vs. the almost $20 we pay here in Hawaii. Eating out is expensive, so is living in Hawaii.

Japan voted for this. From the moment they put Abe back in charge, they agreed to higher prices. Too bad politicians didn’t put wages first.

But as was said above, what is the purpose of economic growth if it only benefits a handful of businesses and companies. Japan would’ve been much better off focusing on improving work-life balance so that consumers could go out and spend as they mingle with others and possibly get married. Instead they have less money to spend and live online.

JindJune 9  11:39 am JST

I like to eat curry outdoors trying different cultures curries like Thai, Chinese, Pakistani, Indian, Malayan, Japanese etc as the taste is different and method of cooking.

Yes, different country curry tastes very different, it is good to explore those tastes.

@commanteer

People who say they prefer the Indian, Nepali, etc. curry shops over Coco seem to miss the point. Coco is a Japanese curry shop, not an Indian curry shop. Its fine for what it is, and having 1200 shops pretty much testifies to that. But uninformed food snobbery abounds. Saying that a local Indian curry shop is better than Coco is like saying that Italian food is better than French. They are two different cuisines.

Not exactly. It's more like comparing a local Italian restaurant to Domino's Pizza. Nobody is dissing Japanese curry. They're just pointing to the fact that if you had the choice between home-made curry and mass produced curry, you might choose the chain restaurant if it were cheaper... but not if they were the same price!

Fastfood, even curry is inherently risky. These chains cut corners on all input costs at all times, so surely, they're now busy buying plenty of Japan's "chicken feed" rice stocks now being released. Don't blame them, as they need to profit, but consumers can 'taste' the difference

All restaurants get stale. CocoCurry is kind of a one-taste wonder now.

If curry is your thing, there are too many Indian (well, mostly Nepalese) places around with great flavors and naan at the same or less cost. Japanese curry is basically just one flavor.