Over 20% Eat 'Dinner at Home Every Day' During Golden Week
Lifescape Marketing's survey shows that over 20% of families eat dinner at home every day during GW 2025, highlighting a trend of 'nesting consumption' due to inflation.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 23, 2026 at 23:30
- 🔍 Collected: April 23, 2026 at 15:01
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 23, 2026 at 20:23 (5h 21m after Collected)
Lifescape Marketing Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Kenji Ueda) announces the results of a survey regarding how people will spend Golden Week 2025, targeting households of two or more people with housewives aged 20 to 72 in the Tokyo metropolitan area (30km radius) (1,357 men and women with family ages from 0 to 91).
Dinner During the Consecutive Holidays
Changes are occurring in how Golden Week (GW) is spent. According to the Shoku-MAP survey, over 20% of people living in family households eat 'dinner at home every day' during GW, revealing the spread of 'nesting consumption' where people refrain from not only traveling but also eating out. (Figure 1)
Figure 1.
Against the backdrop of price hikes and soaring dining-out costs since the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a shift from leisure activities involving going out to spending time centered at home. Especially in family households, there is a prominent trend of 'planned home-cooking' to get through the long holidays comfortably while also utilizing prepared foods and frozen foods.
This movement is not just a temporary savings-oriented mindset but is taking root as a new standard for GW.
From 'holidays to go out' to 'holidays to enjoy at home.'
This time, we will introduce 'axis consumption,' which expands based on the 'likes' that manifest on GW dining tables.
Yakiniku or Sushi?
Figure 2 shows the dinner menus (top 10) whose appearance increased compared to the previous week, targeting those who ate dinner at home every day during the 2025 GW holidays (hereafter, GW nesting group). Typical for GW, celebratory menus such as sashimi, sushi, and yakiniku are increasing, along with yakisoba and pizza.
Figure 2.
On the other hand, during the long holidays, are they eating all of these menus?
Figure 3 shows the menu experience rate among the GW nesting group.
A high 23.8% of the total ate sashimi at least once, similarly 19.1% for yakiniku/BBQ, and 17.1% for nigiri/hand-rolled sushi. About half, 46.3% of the total, experienced at least one of these three menus, 11.1% used two menus, and a small minority of 1.3% had all three. While sashimi, yakiniku, and sushi are all staple GW menus, users seem to be divided.
Figure 3.
Fully Enjoying 'Likes' During GW
Then, what other menus are those who ate sashimi or yakiniku eating?
Figure 4 extracts relevant individuals based on their GW menu experience and ranks the top 10 characteristic menus with high appearance frequency.
Figure 4.
It shows that those who experienced sashimi ate more seafood menus such as fried seafood like fried horse mackerel, seafood bowls/eel bowls, and grilled/simmered fish than the overall average during GW. Similarly, those who experienced yakiniku/BBQ seem to prefer meat dishes such as yakitori, chicken saute, roast pork, ginger pork, and meat curry. For nigiri/hand-rolled sushi experiencers, party menus like rolled/pressed sushi, yakiniku/BBQ, and okonomiyaki/takoyaki stand out.
Fish lovers focus on seafood, meat lovers on meat dishes, and party lovers liven things up by changing menus; each dining table expands based on their 'likes.'
On the other hand, focusing on those who did not eat any of these menus, they incorporated rational menu choices emphasizing time and cost performance, unlike the celebratory feel of GW, such as Western-style rice like bowls and omurice, single-dish staples like mixed rice, and even nutritional intake via supplements.
Knowing the 'Likes' of GW
How many times are they actually eating them repeatedly during GW?
Figure 5 shows the repeat days and user distribution for dinners during the 5 days of GW and the 5 days immediately preceding it.
Figure 5.
If we consider all menus using fresh and processed meat, in addition to meat menus like yakiniku and yakitori, as the 'meat axis,' the percentage of people who ate them on 4 or more out of the 5 GW days reaches 59.9%. This is a 20-point increase compared to 39.2% in the preceding 5 days, showing how many people enjoy meat almost every day.
The 'prepared food axis' shows the usage status of prepared foods, not just menus. 10% of those who used prepared foods did so for 4 or more days, an increase of more than double compared to just before. However, since the percentage of just 1 day is over half, it also shows that there is still a large room to acquire repeaters. Finally, the 'alcohol axis' shows the frequency distribution of alcohol usage. While it is a luxury item with many heavy users to begin with, usage of 4 days or more increased by 6 points during GW, suggesting that about half of the users enjoy drinking almost every night.
In addition, repeat behavior can be seen in many categories, such as homemade menus using spices, the seafood axis, frozen food axis, salad axis, and post-meal sweets axis.
Dinner During the Consecutive Holidays
Changes are occurring in how Golden Week (GW) is spent. According to the Shoku-MAP survey, over 20% of people living in family households eat 'dinner at home every day' during GW, revealing the spread of 'nesting consumption' where people refrain from not only traveling but also eating out. (Figure 1)
Figure 1.
Against the backdrop of price hikes and soaring dining-out costs since the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a shift from leisure activities involving going out to spending time centered at home. Especially in family households, there is a prominent trend of 'planned home-cooking' to get through the long holidays comfortably while also utilizing prepared foods and frozen foods.
This movement is not just a temporary savings-oriented mindset but is taking root as a new standard for GW.
From 'holidays to go out' to 'holidays to enjoy at home.'
This time, we will introduce 'axis consumption,' which expands based on the 'likes' that manifest on GW dining tables.
Yakiniku or Sushi?
Figure 2 shows the dinner menus (top 10) whose appearance increased compared to the previous week, targeting those who ate dinner at home every day during the 2025 GW holidays (hereafter, GW nesting group). Typical for GW, celebratory menus such as sashimi, sushi, and yakiniku are increasing, along with yakisoba and pizza.
Figure 2.
On the other hand, during the long holidays, are they eating all of these menus?
Figure 3 shows the menu experience rate among the GW nesting group.
A high 23.8% of the total ate sashimi at least once, similarly 19.1% for yakiniku/BBQ, and 17.1% for nigiri/hand-rolled sushi. About half, 46.3% of the total, experienced at least one of these three menus, 11.1% used two menus, and a small minority of 1.3% had all three. While sashimi, yakiniku, and sushi are all staple GW menus, users seem to be divided.
Figure 3.
Fully Enjoying 'Likes' During GW
Then, what other menus are those who ate sashimi or yakiniku eating?
Figure 4 extracts relevant individuals based on their GW menu experience and ranks the top 10 characteristic menus with high appearance frequency.
Figure 4.
It shows that those who experienced sashimi ate more seafood menus such as fried seafood like fried horse mackerel, seafood bowls/eel bowls, and grilled/simmered fish than the overall average during GW. Similarly, those who experienced yakiniku/BBQ seem to prefer meat dishes such as yakitori, chicken saute, roast pork, ginger pork, and meat curry. For nigiri/hand-rolled sushi experiencers, party menus like rolled/pressed sushi, yakiniku/BBQ, and okonomiyaki/takoyaki stand out.
Fish lovers focus on seafood, meat lovers on meat dishes, and party lovers liven things up by changing menus; each dining table expands based on their 'likes.'
On the other hand, focusing on those who did not eat any of these menus, they incorporated rational menu choices emphasizing time and cost performance, unlike the celebratory feel of GW, such as Western-style rice like bowls and omurice, single-dish staples like mixed rice, and even nutritional intake via supplements.
Knowing the 'Likes' of GW
How many times are they actually eating them repeatedly during GW?
Figure 5 shows the repeat days and user distribution for dinners during the 5 days of GW and the 5 days immediately preceding it.
Figure 5.
If we consider all menus using fresh and processed meat, in addition to meat menus like yakiniku and yakitori, as the 'meat axis,' the percentage of people who ate them on 4 or more out of the 5 GW days reaches 59.9%. This is a 20-point increase compared to 39.2% in the preceding 5 days, showing how many people enjoy meat almost every day.
The 'prepared food axis' shows the usage status of prepared foods, not just menus. 10% of those who used prepared foods did so for 4 or more days, an increase of more than double compared to just before. However, since the percentage of just 1 day is over half, it also shows that there is still a large room to acquire repeaters. Finally, the 'alcohol axis' shows the frequency distribution of alcohol usage. While it is a luxury item with many heavy users to begin with, usage of 4 days or more increased by 6 points during GW, suggesting that about half of the users enjoy drinking almost every night.
In addition, repeat behavior can be seen in many categories, such as homemade menus using spices, the seafood axis, frozen food axis, salad axis, and post-meal sweets axis.