Meals take a big bite out of Japanese household budgets

The proportion of household income spent on food in Japan has been rising, partly due to increased purchases of prepared meals by busy dual-income couples.

TOKYO -- Japanese households are spending an increasing share of their income on food as prices continue to rise, pushing the country's Engel's coefficient to the highest level among key Group of Seven economies.

The coefficient, which measures the percentage of household expenditures devoted to food, is commonly used to gauge a country's standard of living, with higher figures typically indicating lower economic well-being.

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