Tokyo Salarymen Seek Out ¥500 One-Coin Lunches To Survive Rising Prices
• Salarymen in Tokyo seeking ultra-cheap ¥500 ($2.60) lunches due to rising prices of food imports and inflation • Staples like Yoshinoya's gyudon beef bowl raised prices for the first time in 7 years due to surging beef costs • Nearly half of surveyed salarymen aged 20s-50s spend under ¥500 daily on lunch, with 22.6% eating "one-coin lunches" • About 40% of office workers curtailing lunch budgets, nearly 70% skipping favorite dishes to save money • Author samples range of filling sub-¥500 lunches like gyudon, gyoza, ramen, soba noodles and curry over one work week