There’s a new phrase floating around Japanese social media and news: shokuji kyanseru kaiwai, the “meal-canceling crowd.” It’s the latest entry in the whole “cancel crowd” trend among young people, where they jokingly (or not so jokingly) announce they’re giving up something. Home cooking, bathing, and now… actual meals.
A recent survey of people aged 15–49 found that 34% skip at least one meal a week. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, that number jumps to 41%. The top reason? Simply being too busy. Work, school, side hustles, whatever, eating just doesn’t make the cut.
But not everyone is treating this like another quirky youth trend. Some people are pointing out that a solid chunk of respondents in their late 20s are skipping meals specifically to save money. Japan’s Engel coefficient — the percentage of household spending that goes to food, recently hit its highest level in over four decades. Food is taking up a bigger slice of people’s budgets, and for a lot of younger workers, that hurts.
Online, the debate is pretty split. One side says the media loves framing everything as “kids these days choosing their lifestyle,” because talking about actual poverty doesn’t get as many clicks. Calling it “canceling meals” makes it sound like a personal preference instead of a financial squeeze. Others push back and say a lot of young people do have the money, they’re just choosing to spend it on hobbies, idol activities (oshikatsu), or mobile game gacha pulls instead of lunch.
Both can be true at the same time. Rising prices are real and they’re pinching a lot of people. At the same time, some younger folks are genuinely ranking sleep, content creation, or fan activities higher than sitting down for a proper meal. Dieting also plays a role for a portion of teens and early 20s.
So is the “meal-canceling crowd” just another cute internet phrase, or a quiet red flag about how stretched a lot of young Japanese people are feeling right now? Probably a bit of both. Either way, it’s one of those terms that says more about the current moment than it first appears.
