I feel like the Japanese are silent about it and foreigners pay little mind to it… but with the weakening yen everything has gone up 30% or more in cost while incomes and general economic classification hasn’t changed.
In the US, over the past decade middle class annual income has increased from roughly 40-50k to 70-80k. And yet a budget model iPhone 16e in the US costs $599.
In Japan, over the past decade nothing has changed at all. Most average Joes make 3 to 5 million yen.
But the weakening yen in the global financial market has shafted locals and forced us to bite the bullet.
A $500ish budget iPhone in 2020 was ¥60000. Now the 2025 16e budget model is ¥110,000.
The fact that all the corporations are rinsing Japanese folks so bad they’re paying almost double, and nobody complains anywhere about it at all, makes me feel like I’m living in the Matrix.
(Edit for poor wording. Didn’t mean to imply nobody anywhere ever seems bothered. Yes, I know us foreigners gripe a bit here and there about annoying little increases like egg prices or restaurants menus and such, but that’s about it. I’ve never seen or heard a single complaint from the Japanese side of the internet, or in person, about phone prices doubling, basic shoes with poor insoles costing ¥15000, and stuff along those lines.)
by PiPiPoohPooh