Enough apologies: How Japan is shaking off its price hike phobia

When Japanese ice pop maker Akagi Nyugyo raised its prices a meager ¥10 in 2016, its somber-faced management appeared in a one-minute commercial, bowing silently in apology as a melancholy folk song lamented the inevitability of price hikes.

Almost a decade later, the Saitama-based company has changed its tune — a tongue-in-cheek advertising campaign last year promised in a series of photos to bow successively deeper for each of its next three price hikes.

The lighter-hearted spin comes as Japanese firms, after decades of deflation, find a rare moment that allows them to raise prices without triggering the intense public backlash that once made such moves taboo.