Japan has been hit by unseasonably cloudy weather and cool temperatures, Tokyo enjoying fewer than three hours of sunshine a day for 20 days through to Tuesday, the lowest recorded since Japan’s Meteorological Agency started collecting data in 1961.
These cloudy have certainly cast a shadow over the capital’s vegetable markets, forcing up the prices of some by 70%.
The lack of sunshine and low temperatures has been affecting agriculture across much of the Japanese archipelago. Cucumber prices have shot up by 70%, while other vegetables have also posted double-digit hikes at Tokyo’s central wholesale market, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
But not all vegetables are feeling the burn. The prices of onions, white radishes and carrots have all dropped because the northern island of Hokkaido, where the majority of them are grown, enjoyed more normal levels of sunshine.
The cause of the cooler, rainy weather is an anticyclone in the Sea of Okhotsk, off the eastern seaboard of Russia, that has been pushing cold and humid air south across Japan.
