Zensho Holdings will introduce late night fees at its Sukiya beef bowl chains and will also raise prices on food items starting Wednesday amid rising labor and raw material costs.

The operator of the popular beef bowl chain announced Friday that the eateries, which are open 24 hours, will charge an additional 7% to the bills of late-night customers coming between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.

It will also increase prices on about 30% of meal items, ranging between ?10 to ?50. A regular beef bowl will be priced at ?430, a ?30 hike.

The new price system will be implemented from 9 a.m. on Wednesday, according to Zensho, which was operating 1,952 Sukiya stores nationwide as of February.

Late night fees are rare for major beef-bowl fast food restaurants although many of the 24-hour restaurant chains commonly known in Japan as ¡°family restaurants¡± charge such fees.

Although beef bowls are often seen as a symbol of Japanese fast food for people looking for cheap meals, higher inflation has increased operators¡¯ costs, prompting them to hike prices over the past year.

Yoshinoya, another beef-bowl chain, raised its regular-size beef bowl price last October and rival operator Matsuya did so in March last year. Matsuya also announced Friday that it plans to hike some other food items starting Tuesday.

On top of inflation, labor shortages have also been a headache for Japanese firms across a wide range of industries.

During this spring¡¯s wage negotiations between the labor and management sides, a slew of large companies offered hefty wage hikes to keep and attract workers.

Zensho has offered an average 12.2% wage hike for its regular employees starting in April.

According to a preliminary figure released by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, known as Rengo, the average pay hike among major Japanese firms stands at a 33-year high of 5.25%, considerably higher than last year¡¯s preliminary figure of 3.76%.