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200 sats \ 4 replies \ @chungkingexpress 16 Apr freebie \ parent \ on: Japanese Yen continues to crash, almost 155 Yen to USD 📈 econ
I live in Japan but am lucky to have a mix of local and overseas income.
Overall wages are low compared to my home in New Zealand or USA etc. Minimum wage of ~¥1100 per hour, $7USD, most white-collar jobs pay way less than West. However cost of living is also relatively cheap. You can have a decent lunch for ¥900 and a comfortable apartment in Tokyo can be in the range of 80,000 - 160,000yen per month. Insurance and healthcare are also very cheap.
There is a sense that most companies try to keep their prices as similar and stable as possible due to lots of competition but there is also maybe a cultural component. If a company was seen to raise prices explicitly then I think people and media would come down very hard on them. There are expectations of what things should cost and it is hard to step outside of that unless the whole industry raises their prices at the same time, which has happened over the last few years.
The only time I have heard Japanese people experience the weakness of the yen is when they have tried to go overseas for travel.
There is more to it as I think the pernicious effect of a weak yen is manifesting in other places, but honestly my lived experience here even if I was earning only yen locally is much better than New Zealand. Housing and food in particular is super cheap compared to what I get back home.
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Yes I must of edited my comment to be more precise after you replied, sorry. I don't believe the narrative of greedy businesses price gouging, but more likely the supermarkets would "take the hit" to maintain a stable price and either reduce the quality in the least damaging way possible or otherwise cut costs elsewhere while maintaining high standards.
E.g. in my experience if word got out that a place is "expensive" it would kill it and someone else would come in and work harder to undercut them.
One could probably write a book on the dynamics of "Japanese society", but there are expectations around price and quality and a very strong anchoring bias as the place has not had inflation for 30 years. That may change soon, you see stickers with new prices written in restaurants etc, but price increases are still emerging as a "thing".
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I think that not having had inflation for the last 30 years will be quite hard for the average young Japanese, who does not understand how Fiat and the economy work. By living anchored to the JPY all the little savings power you have, you will see how the purchasing power in your hands is diluted... fact: for periods of high inflation "money is of no use and merchandise works better to save saving power." buy so to speak, although if you are reading this, you already know bitcoin and will not suffer from the inflation of Fiat money
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