Warming seas worsen Japan's price shock with $120 urchin rice bowls

By Yuka Obayashi and Katya Golubkova

RISHIRI, Japan (Reuters) -As Japan faces its hottest summer in history, a sharp decline in the catch of sea urchin in the country’s north has made the spiny delicacy further out of reach for many consumers already strained by high food costs.

On Hokkaido’s Rishiri Island, restaurants offer a rice bowl with 100 grams of bafun sea urchin – renowned for its rich sweetness – at a record 15,000–18,000 yen ($100-$120), roughly double what it was several years ago.

“Everyone is shocked when they see the price,” said Kimiko Sato, owner of the Sato Shokudo restaurant across from Rishiri’s Oshidomari ferry terminal, which her family has run for more than 50 years.

“A group of customers would share just one sea urchin bowl, and everyone would order ramen for t