A Japanese school boy eating steamed rice.
 
Soaring oil prices are having an impact on an unlikely place -- on school dinners in Japan.

A school in Yokohama near Tokyo has decided¹ to cancel school dinners for two days in January on account of the recent spike² in oil prices, media reports and an official said.

Ekoda elementary school had allotted³ an annual 40,000 yen⁴ (365 dollars) per student for lunches, but was going over budget, an education board official said.

In order to remedy the situation, school dinners and afternoon classes would be cancelled for two days in January, she said.

According to Kyodo News, the school told to parents that the record oil prices were driving up the costs of food.

Oil briefly⁵ rose above 99 US dollars per barrel for the first time on Wednesday as the greenback's fall drove demand for dollar-denominated crude.

Japan has virtually no energy resources of its own and is heavily reliant on imported produce, with its food self-sufficiency rate slipping below 40 percent last year for the first time in more than a decade.

The official said Ekoda was already serving more lunches than most other schools.

 在日本，油价飞涨正在你想不到的地方产生影响，那就是学校的伙食供应。

据媒体报道及一名官员介绍，由于近期油价飙升，位于东京附近横滨市的一所学校决定明年一月份取消两天的伙食供应。

日本教育部的官员介绍说，立荏子田小学每名学生一年的午餐经费是4万日元（365美元），但现在已经快超预算了。

针对这一状况，学校决定取消一月份两天的伙食供应并停课两个下午。

据日本共同社报道，校方已向学生家长们做出了解释，称决定采用此举主要是因为油价空前上涨造成食品成本也随之上涨。

由于美元下跌造成以美元计价的原油需求量增大，原油价格于本周三首次突破每桶99美元。

日本资源匮乏，大量资源依靠进口。去年，日本的食品自给率十多年来首次跌至40%以下。

这位官员介绍，其实，立荏子田小学为学生提供的午餐数量比其它大多数学校都要多。

 
Vocabulary:

on account of : 由于

food self-sufficiency rate :食品自给率