Major Japanese beef-bowl restaurant chains want to keep people coming through their doors even as they struggle with higher costs. Some are offering temporary discounts on popular menu items as an incentive.

Yoshinoya started a one-week campaign to lower the prices of more than 30 dishes, including beef bowls, by 100 yen, or about 70 cents.

It's the first time in 13 years the company has offered a discount of 100 yen or more.

Yoshinoya had been raising its beef-bowl prices for four years running to keep up with the rising cost of ingredients and labor.

A customer at an outlet in Tokyo said he welcomes cheaper beef bowls as he has been tightening his purse strings. He said higher prices had damaged the reputation of the "gyudon" as an affordable meal.

Yoshinoya Holdings President Kawamura Yasutaka said "The cost of various items is going up in October. We wanted to attract people with reasonable prices. It's our duty to find ways to offer value to our customers."

Other beef-bowl chains, Sukiya and Matsuya, are offering discount coupons until mid-October. They hope this will help retain customers as the price hikes continue.