Japanese Economy takes a dive!

Is it cheaper to buy things in Japan now with the Japanese economy heading towards possible depression. I mean are shop keapers dropping their prices in order to make sales?

Japanese Economy takes a dive!

Hi, Adventure-san,

What are you looking for?

If you%26#39;re tall and handsome, you won%26#39;t find shoes! :-)

Japanese Economy takes a dive!

I mean anything in general and well yes tall an handsome lol.

Not really. Exchange rate isn%26#39;t great for most foreign currency users so while we enjoy lower price of imported items, I don%26#39;t think you will see advantages if you bring money from outside the country.

AND while average income has hugely reduced among Japanese working slaves, tax and other governmental charges has gone up thanks to stupid greedy law makers.

Who said Japan is clean non corrupted country? This slugging economy is revealing ugly side of this country more than ever. You will see more of this in next few years.

With having said this, we actually see lots of bargain sales in many stores as people tend to cut their spendings. So if you know where to go and what to buy, you may be able to find better deals than your home country.

If you based in AUD, you will find no bargains in Japan now. AUD has lost about 35-40% in value vs JPY the past year. In July 08, AUD was worth 103 yen. Today its 62.

The only exceptions would be unique items not available anywhere else in which price/value is not important.

About a month ago the consensus was that USD/JPY was going to 80. Today its 98. In August last year it was 110.

Two things need to happen to make Japan a better value for Aussies: 1) USD strength against JPY, 2) AUD strength against USD).

For Japanese its just the opposite - consider sterling - GBP/JPY reached a peak of 250 in Sept 07, now its 140. The world is on sale for the Japanese right now.

In January when I was there it was Y88 to USD. That%26#39;s the worst I%26#39;ve ever seen it when I%26#39;ve been in Japan. The commodity bubble, yen carry and US economy have much to do with this. Regarding AUS, I think it is very much to do with the commodity bubble bursting, which is actually a good thing for the world economy in the long run. No bubble is good.