Soaring oil prices are having an impact on an unlikely place —— on school dinners in Japan.
　　A school in Yokohama near Tokyo has decided to cancel school dinners for two days in January on account of the recent spike in oil prices， media reports and an official said.
　　Ekoda elementary school had allotted an annual 40，000 yen （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 briefly 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.