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<\/p>\nKEY POINTSTPC Marketing Research releases Japan meal survey covering 1,908 adults across eight regionsForty-five percent report higher food-cost burdens, while spending cuts center on desserts rather than staple health-supporting foodsMeal planning emerges as a major burden, with 43.5% citing menu decisions and convenience foods valued beyond time savings
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A variety of Japanese dishes are arranged on a table as part of a study on dietary habits and consumer behavior.
\nTPC Marketing Research<\/p>\n
TPC Marketing Research said on August 18 it had released findings from a survey on Japanese consumers’ attitudes and behavior around meals, showing that rising prices are changing food choices while the burden of deciding what to eat has become a significant issue alongside cooking itself.<\/p>\n
The Osaka-based research firm surveyed 1,908 men and women in Japan aged from their 20s to 70s across eight regions, with responses collected in line with population composition. The survey was conducted from June 4 to June 8 and is the first in a tracking study launched in 2026 to capture eating behavior alongside household finances, cooking burdens, health awareness, values and lifestyle.<\/p>\n
The survey found that breakfast, lunch and dinner each play different roles, with breakfast the meal most likely to be skipped, particularly because respondents cited lack of time. It also found that the definition of a “proper meal” varied by gender and age. Among men, the emphasis across age groups remained on eating three meals a day properly, while among women the standard shifted with age from having cooked the meal themselves to having a nutritionally balanced combination of staple food, main dish and side dish. Supplementary figures showed that 29.0% of younger men and 44.3% of older men defined a proper meal as eating three meals a day properly, while 37.8% of younger women emphasized cooking the meal themselves and 63.6% of older women emphasized having a staple, main and side dish.<\/p>\n
The company said 45.0% of respondents felt the burden of food spending had increased amid higher prices. Rather than simply cutting overall spending, consumers reduced purchases of desserts and confectionery while maintaining the relative priority of foods associated with daily health, including vegetables, eggs and meat.<\/p>\n
Convenience foods were also taking on a broader role. Their value was no longer limited to saving time, cited by 70.9% of respondents, but extended to storage and stockpiling, cited by 73.2%, and affordability, cited by 67.7%. The survey also found that the sense of a meal being homemade was shaped less by preparing everything from scratch than by a feeling of involvement through seasoning or heating.<\/p>\n
By household type, the survey identified different food-related challenges. In single-person households, the hassle of cooking for one tended to limit menu variety, contributing to lower dietary diversity and a higher risk of frailty. In dual-income households, time-saving and simplification were advancing, but the cognitive burden of planning meals stood out: 43.5% cited thinking about menus and meal plans as a burden, according to the release. Supplementary data also showed that 24.1% cited managing food spending as a burden and 20.1% cited deciding what they wanted to eat. Among seniors, healthy eating habits were more established overall, but senior single-person households showed a gap, with cooking and shopping burdens affecting nutritional conditions.<\/p>\n
The survey also pointed to broader food lifestyle trends in Japan, including a growing preference for personalized eating patterns and individualization of meals, as well as what the company called “effortless wellness,” or a desire to become healthier without intensive effort. It said another emerging theme was “brain time performance,” referring to demand for lower cognitive load in tasks such as deciding what to cook and how to manage food spending.<\/p>\n
TPC Marketing Research also classified consumers into eight clusters, including groups focused on enriched food lifestyles, smart eating, prudent investment and household defense, with the aim of clarifying the lifestyles and value propositions associated with each segment.<\/p>\n
TPC Marketing Research was founded in August 1991 and is based in Osaka’s Nishi Ward. The company conducts marketing research and consulting and prepares and sells research materials. It published the report, titled “2026 Survey on Attitudes and Realities Related to Meals (Part 1),” on July 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KEY POINTSTPC Marketing Research releases Japan meal survey covering 1,908 adults across eight regionsForty-five percent report higher food-cost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45496,17091,49073,38845,26818,8,17,49072,49071],"class_list":["post-76375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-consumer-survey","tag-convenience-foods","tag-eating-habits","tag-food-inflation","tag-household-spending","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-meal-planning","tag-tpc-marketing-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}