Most of the effects of Japan's ban on US beef imports are incremental--prices of domestic and other "safe" beef are edging up, for example. However, there is one staple of everyday Japanese life that could disappear at a stroke due to the lack of US beef--the gyudon, or beef bowl. The four major gyudon chains source their beef entirely from the US, and stockpiles are set to run out in mid-February. Yoshinoya, the market leader, could find itself forced to axe its mainstay product as early as February 10. It has already stopped 24-hour operations at 174 of its 980 outlets and discontinued its jumbo size (toku-mori), and is scrambling to introduce curry bowl, yakitori bowl, and salmon-and-salmon-roe bowl products to fill the impending gap. In a sign that it realises this will not be enough, it has also frozen all planned sales promotion activities and new store openings.
Yoshinoya[Update] As to why it wouldn't be practical to switch to Australian beef, apparently US beef has the amount of fat necessary to meet the Japanese palate, where Aussie beef is leaner (the comparison used on the news here was chuu-toro vs. standard tuna meat). Also, US beef can be bought in the cuts required, whereas common practice in Australia is to sell the whole animal, which would entail buying a lot of unnecessary bits. Sounds like there's a business opportunity in there somewhere.
Link to Nikkei Shinbun - In Japanese
No madcow disease to worry about either.
