Japan having to fork over chopstick tax

TOKYO — Walk into any Japanese noodle shop or restaurant and chances are you'll be eating with a pair of disposable wooden chopsticks from China. But not for long.

In a move that has cheered environmentalists but worried restaurant owners, China has imposed a 5 percent tax on the chopsticks over concerns of deforestation.

The move is tough on the Japanese, who go through 25 billion sets of wooden chopsticks a year — about 200 pairs per person — 97 percent of them from China.

Chinese chopstick exporters have responded to the tax increase and a rise in other costs by increasing chopstick prices by 30 percent — with a planned additional 20 percent increase pending.

The increase has sent Japanese restaurants scrambling to find alternative sources for chopsticks, called "waribashi" in Japanese.

"We're not in an emergency situation yet, but there has been some impact," said Ichiro Fukuoka, director of Japan Chopsticks Import Association.

A pair of waribashi that used to cost a little over 1 yen — less than 1 cent — now goes for 1.5 to 1.7 yen. The rising costs of raw wood and transportation because of higher oil prices have also contributed to the rise, industry officials said.

Soon, some fear, Japan won't even be able to get expensive chopsticks from China: Japanese newspapers reported that China is expected to stop waribashi exports to Japan as early as 2008.

To minimize the effect, Japanese importers now buy more bamboo chopsticks and are considering new suppliers, including Vietnam, Indonesia and Russia, said Fukuoka.

Convenience-store operators are trying to cushion the effect through cost-cutting in distribution.

"We provide chopsticks only to customers who ask for them," said Mayumi Ito, a spokeswoman for Seven & I Holdings, owner of 7-Eleven convenience stores. "We're closely watching the development."

Until the 1980s, about half the disposable chopsticks used in Japan were produced by Japanese companies. But then far cheaper Chinese-produced ones were introduced.

Supporters of environmental causes see the new Chinese tax as a chance to get rid of disposable chopsticks, which have been linked to deforestation and a wasteful lifestyle.