“If costs go up and we don’t increase the prices, it will have a big impact on us, so we had to start there,” said company spokesman Yasuhisa Tsuzuki, adding that Vixen had also been affected by rising wages in China where it manufactures. So far, there has not been a consumer backlash, he said.

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“Few people care when the price of an astronomy telescope goes up,” Tsuzuki said. “But a hike in the cost of milk or eggs will be reported as big story on every single news show.”

Tokyo-based Shirakawa Sogyo Co Ltd, which has been importing and selling violins since the 1960s, this month raised prices of some Swiss-made bows by as much as 36 per cent, to up to 539,000 yen.

A strengthening Swiss franc against the yen has added to the squeeze on already tight profit margins, company President Susumu Shirakawa said.

Now may be an “easier time” to raise prices because costs are generally going up for everyone, he said. “Some of our competitors are doing it as well.”

Goods sold to other businesses are seeing bigger price increases than those sold directly to consumers, according to official data.

Wholesale inflation, which reflects the prices firms charge each other for goods, rose to a record 9 per cent in November, while the core consumer price index ticked up 0.5 per cent from a year earlier, the highest in nearly two years.

Final goods prices rose just 4.6 per cent in November even as raw material costs spiked 74.6 per cent.

Retailers, for instance, generally allow food suppliers to increase prices only when the cost of raw materials jumps 20-30 per cent, said Takao Sekine, executive director at Food Marketing Research and Information Centre, a Tokyo-based industry think tank.

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Less than that and food companies are forced to resort to “shrinkflation”, Sekine said, where they offset costs by making products smaller.

Even companies selling directly to other businesses say they are careful about the size of their increases.

Nippon Paper Industries Co Ltd, which accounts for around 40 per cent of the domestic paper market excluding cardboard, is raising prices of some products by 5-15 per cent in the next few months.

But it is limiting increases to products where it is a market leader, such as the “gable-top” cartons used by milk producers, according to spokesman Tetsuo Egawa. “It’s hard for a company that’s not a top player to be the first to raise prices,” Egawa said.

Japanese companies often describe price increases as something they do as a last resort when costs cannot be absorbed by corporate efforts – a euphemism for cost-cutting.

Sangetsu Corp raised prices of wallpaper, curtains and flooring materials by around 15 per cent in September, which it said was partly on behalf of the industry, to ensure other companies would be able to stay profitable.

Top stationery maker Kokuyo Co Ltd raised the price of scissors, staplers and other metal items by around 8 per cent from January 1, but it limited increases to fewer than one out of every six items in its stationery line-up.

“Our internal streamlining could no longer address the rise in steel prices,” said Hideki Kubo, from the company.