[rayiner]

Apparently many American and European consumer products have pricing that tends to be indexed to USD. According to my wife, the Japanese women on her handbag forums are quite salty about the price of Chanel and such these days.

[lobochrome]

Sure. As we are salty about the price of Apple products. But how often do you buy this stuff?

Day in and day out, my bowl of Ramen is still 600 JPY. My veggies come from Aomori and my Milk from Hokkaido. It's fine.

I work in a company that has 95% export and my salary is paid in EUR/JPY and USD (don't ask). So I actually benefit quite a bit. But your average Japanese citizen is just not that much affected. (Unless she buys a lot of imported goods).

[justworkout]

Food prices have shot up an insane amount. I was getting milk for 130 yen a carton 3 years ago and now it's 230 and up. Wheat is virtually all imported and prices for that are incredibly high. Even when food is produced locally (only about 38% self-sufficiency rate--most are exports[1]), it depends on foreign materials. e.g. Animals are fed imported grains, plants use imported fertilizers, manufacturing depends on imported materials.

The biggest complaint from Japanese Japanese (not expats paid in USD) is that food prices have blown up tremendously. It's literally daily headline news. But yeah yeah, the underclass is only complaining about their Apple hardware prices.

[1] https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/editorial/yomiuri-editorial/...

[Danieru]

Did you move here three years ago? 2020-2021 was the heart of COVID deflation. I remember paying 110yen per litre for gasoline at Costco. Nic Hotels were 1万 a night for our family of three.

Any anchoring off late 2020 is super misleading. Milk at 130yen is not a reasonable price before COVID. Wheat to consumers at gyomu super or Costco has not moved in price, which is reasonable consider it has always cost several multiples over wholesale.

Worst has perhaps been sushi. The selection of 110yen sushi had gotten slightly smaller.

Overall, Japan has a lot less inflation than you'd expect considering the exchange rate.

[fomine3]

Had you bought 1L milk for 130JPY? It's too cheap even in 2019 so I suspect that it's loss leader on your supermarket. In my area, price jumped from 190 to 230.

[fomine3]

One of a big reason why Japanese aren't be hurt so much (compared to Europe?) by inflation is because govt support for raised gas and electricity price. Some foods are made in local, but gas for production and transportation is 100% imported.

[Danieru]

That is super true, and not super common knowledge in Japan. The gasoline subsidy was aging out late last year and news started covering the mysterious persistent increase in gasoline prices.

You'd think kishida-san would want more credit for his vote buying haha.

[rurp]

This seems pretty spot on. I would bet that the median Japanese citizen cares infinitely more about local food prices than the cost of a chanel bag.

[rayiner]

> As we are salty about the price of Apple products. But how often do you buy this stuff?

Even if you splurge on a foreign luxury product once a year, it can seem like a downgrade in standard of living. Perhaps especially so if your special occasion is impacted and meanwhile you’re not seeing any higher affordability of domestic goods.

I mean, my whole family got a kick out of spending much less than expected for a week while we were in Japan, even though the other 51 weeks this year we will be dealing with US inflation. Psychology around inflation is weird.

[xrd]

What was your experience with hotel prices?

[rayiner]

Quite low. Four star hotels in Kyoto are under $100/night right now.

[dboreham]

I don't run in Channel circles but LV and Prada are much cheaper in Japan rn. Another handbag hack is to purchase in Hawaii because the retailers charge less there than mainland to address the Japanese tourist market.

[KptMarchewa]

Oh yeah, Chanel bags, the common expense for a median customer.