Photo taken yesterday (2025-02-08) at a supermarket in Kyoto, Japan.
Alt text: A picture of the eggs section in a Japanese supermarket. There's a 10-pack of eggs going for 215 Japanese Yen, which is about 1.42 US dollars.
I forgot that the us is one of the few countries that washes the eggs and as a result they have to be refridgerated, its weirs for me to just see them out on the floor at room temperature
This is one of those neat factoids that isn't entirely true.
Japan does wash and refrigerate its eggs, just not all eggs and brands and groceries (it's not a law).
Refrigerated and unrefrigerated eggs side-by-side
Refrigerated eggs
Most of the low salmonella incident rate comes from a higher inspection rate of egg producers and, here's the fun one, a higher rate of raw egg ingestion, leading to faster report and response times for when there is contamination.
I was convinced Japan also washed their eggs. I'm confused.
Also I'm curious about why Americans are really squeamish about people eating any egg products that haven't been fully sterilized by cooking, while others generally aren't scared of it, even if they're in a country that washes eggs just like the US.
In the US, people don't even taste their cake batter to check the amount of sugar before cooking it; in Canada, a summer isn't whole until you've made strawberry mousse (ingredients: strawberries, egg whites, sugar; eaten raw). Perplexing. Is it riskier in the US, or is the risk equally low everywhere but Americans are really paranoid?
The USDA's website says that eggs are "washed and refrigerated in Canada, Japan, and Scandinavia", but that's a lie regarding Scandinavia in any case (I'm an egg enthusiast btw)... so I wouldn't be surprised they're lying about Japan as well.
It's just two different strategies for avoiding salmonella. The US method has worked very well for a very long time. So much so that other countries did adopt it, at least for a time, but it requires an infrastructure that can keep the eggs refrigerated through from processing to consumer, which isn't trivial.
US here, I grew up in a township, part rural part suburban, on a farm and this was not a concern for most people out there but all my friends and their families from the suburban side were squeamish. I think it comes down to repeated misinformation reinforcing a fear.
They often end up with bits of stuff stuck to them while they're wet, like feathers, bedding, etc. Poop isn't uncommon either. The same people who won't buy salmon unless it has that freshly dyed pink color, and won't buy potatoes if they aren't universally convex, balk at the bits that remind them they come from a real place and aren't just summoned into existence for their sake. Washing the eggs takes off the bits but also the 'bloom' which is the natural barrier to bacteria and the like. Hence, refrigeration.
Because the conditions that the chickens are raised in promote growth of salmonella to such a degree that they need to chlorinate the outside and scrub & wash away the cuticle. The production model for chickens is so harsh that they can't keep themselves clean or care for themselves. And the chemical companies profit off the model so there is no incentive to make chickens happier or healthier.
Japan was largely allergic to price increases, especially as wages remained largely stagnant. Corona began to see some things slide and Russia also had an impact that, coupled with a yen weakening compared to the dollar, basically opened the floodgates on price increases. It's in the news basically every week now. Rice is double what it was a few years ago.
The Japanese sporting fans leave the stadium cleaner than before the match started. Cleanliness in Japan is taken to new level and the rest of the 1st World could learn from the Rising Sun.
The us has killed more than 15 million chickens just the last few weeks. Sometimes with foam. If other countries have to do that their prices will rise too. NHK had a great documentary recently about an egg family that was doing pasture raised eggs at $1 each.
It's actually kind of funny, at Aldi the price of regular eggs doubled to like $4.50, but the price of the free range eggs went up like $0.50 to $5.75. It dawned on me that the reason my egg costs have not varied that much is because I was always buying the better eggs the whole time.
I haven always been buying “good eggs” but pasture raised are actually cheaper than battery at my local grocery the last few times I’ve gone. Kinda crazy.
I like to imagine they have higher standards at their laying facilities, but theirs could be just as monstrous as our filthy torture facilities that produce most cheap eggs here.
I get local (I think free-range, but don't recall) for 400 yen/10. I think "regular" eggs are about the same (edit: same price as in your pic) up here in tohoku
To be fair though, February 10 is not exactly strawberry season. So that blame in part goes to this annoying "nature" dude, who came up with "seasons" and shit just to raise prices.
The general point is true, though. Same with apples right now... you look away one second, they jump from 200 to 400円 each 😐
At least (well, debatable) the fruit don't shrink away at the same time like all the other goods.