[adventured]

Japan hasn't suffered any meaningful deflation in the last 25 years. In fact, they've suffered immense inflation, as have most major economies. That's why they have among the highest costs of living on earth, their consumer goods are expensive, and almost everything in Tokyo costs a fortune.

Run 2% deflation against 25 years, and tell me consumer goods in Japan should cost what they do.

The only thing Japan suffered, was the bursting of a real estate bubble. Following that, they accumulated insane sums of debt trying to fake continued prosperity and avoid the standard of living drop that was inevitable (and is now arriving anyway). Asset prices going down is not inherently deflation, in the case of Japan it was fake wealth that never should have existed in the first place.

[seanmcdirmid]

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/inflation-cpi

Set the start date to 1990. Inflation has never risen above 4%, and most of the time hovers around 2%, which is considered normal and hardly "immense". You even see deflation at a few points, which is almost unheard of in developed economies and always considered quite bad.

I've traveled to Japan a few times, and noticed that it is a bit cheaper to go now than before. Definitely not expensive outside of hotels and shinkansen tickets.