{"id":367604,"date":"2026-03-27T06:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T06:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/367604\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T06:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T06:59:17","slug":"japans-cherry-blossom-parties-could-wilt-as-inflation-strains-wallets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/367604\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s cherry blossom parties could wilt as inflation strains wallets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan<\/a>\u2019s cherry trees are in full bloom, heralding the arrival of spring and the beginning of hanami picnics filled with food, festivities and fun.<\/p>\n

But stubborn inflation, the economic fallout from the war in Iran and looming unsettled weather have muted excitement for this year\u2019s gatherings \u2013 a time-honoured tradition that is also popular with tourists.<\/p>\n

A survey by Intage found that 38 per cent of Japanese were planning to attend a cherry blossom viewing event with family, friends or colleagues, down 2.1 percentage points from last year.<\/p>\n

Asked how much they would spend on the outings, the 2,500 respondents set their budget at an average of 6,383 yen (US$40), down from an average of 7,407 yen last spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is thought that this reflects a restrained trend in leisure activities as overall consumer spending becomes more moderate,\u201d the Tokyo-based research agency said earlier this month.<\/p>\n

According to the firm, nationwide cherry blossom party spending stood at 234.1 billion yen \u2013 a \u201csignificant contraction\u201d that represented just 81.5 per cent of last year\u2019s total.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s cherry trees are in full bloom, heralding the arrival of spring and the beginning of hanami picnics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,165496,165497,113,165498,61,1095,165499,11829,60,165500,582,165501,165502,1196,150177,6627,2040,100690],"class_list":["post-367604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-cherry-blossom","tag-cherry-trees","tag-economy","tag-hanami","tag-ie","tag-inflation","tag-intage","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-issei-izawa","tag-japan","tag-japan-meteorological-agency","tag-kiyoko-date","tag-middle-east","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-tokyo","tag-ukraine","tag-yokohama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}