No surprise

[ramchop]

The Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka have retained their rankings as the most expensive in the world

[Taro Toporific]

The Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka have retained their rankings as the most expensive in the world

But... living carless in a concrete slum like Kanto is "repectable" for a FG---by definition a gaijin does not have any face to lose.

[GomiGirl]

There has been some downward pressure on pricing in Japan - especially on real estate, however it has been shown that pricing for general consumables is largely inelastic. (ie lower priced goods don't make people buy more)

What I have read on an Economics research paper is that perception of the economy is the factor that opens of closes the consumer wallet rather than prices. This seems to be a cultural thing.

I don't have the link for this as it seems to have gone away..

So prices stay high as retailers don't see any volume increases from reduced prices so margins are preserved instead.

But infrastucture and therefore prices haven't decreased either which keeps up the cost of goods....

I wonder if protectionism is a factor.....

[ramchop]

I wonder if protectionism is a factor.....

Perhaps there are other forces at work. Nearly had heart attack when I saw the price of condoms. But nappies are cheaper here than they are at home. Anyone would think that they were trying to increase the birth rate here.

Maybe therein lies the reason for Japan's poor showing on the Durex bonking frequency survey. It's just too expensive.

[Taro Toporific]

Perhaps there are other forces at work.

"Other forces" for sure!
Another factor to tanshin funin is that salarymen are not wanted at home.
The Japanese proverb is: A good husband is healthy and absent. ("teishu wa jobu de rusu ga ii")

And of course the slang term for a retired husband is "sodai gomi" ("giant garbage" the big, hard-to-dispose-of junk like broken refrigerators." Most Japanese women find that a husband who is around the house is just jamma in her way, and he's totally useless around the home - he doesn't help with any work, and all he does is mope when there's no kaisha work to do.