The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has ordered every shop, market stall, and vending machine in the capital to rewrite all price tags by hand within 24 hours, after the consumer price index rose to 1.9 percent in August from 1.8 percent the previous month.
Officials distributed 12 million calligraphy brushes and 40,000 liters of ink to retailers across the 23 wards, instructing them to discard all printed labels and replace them with hand-drawn numerals in traditional brush style. The measure, announced at a dawn press conference, is intended to make citizens feel the weight of inflation through the physical act of writing.
«When a shopkeeper dips his brush and paints the new price of a cucumber, he understands the burden of rising costs in his wrist,» said Deputy Governor Hiroshi Tanaka, who personally demonstrated the technique on a 300-yen radish. «A printed label is abstract. A hand-painted one is a commitment.»
By midday, queues formed outside stationery shops as convenience store clerks practiced their strokes on scrap paper. Department stores hired calligraphy masters to oversee the work, while fishmongers in Tsukiji were seen debating whether the new price for tuna should be written in bold or fine script. The city has also announced that all future price changes must be accompanied by a brief handwritten note explaining the reason, to be displayed next to the item.
«I have not slept in two days,» said a Lawson clerk, painting a 120-yen bottle of tea. «But my sevens are beautiful now.» The government plans to extend the policy to digital displays, requiring electronic price tags to be replaced with paper scrolls by the end of the year.