I know that the exchange rate is just over 100 yen per dollar, but what does that mean in terms of real goods and services? For instance, I can get a McDonald’s value meal for $3.50 here (in Kansas). Does this mean that at an exchange rate of 106 JPY per USD I can get an inexpensive meal in Japan for ~371 yen?
I know that this a tricky question because relative value of goods may differ in the two economies, so the answer to this question regarding a meal may be quite different than that for a haircut. But still I would like to be able to get a general feel for what is expensive and what is a bargain in Japan.
Amusingly enough, a common metric used to compare the purchasing power of currencies is the Big Mac Index.
According to this year’s Big Mac Index courtesy of the Economist, the average price in US dollars for a Big Mac in America is $2.80, and in Japan, it’s equivilent to $2.47.
When I lived in Japan about a year ago, I would usually pay:
[ul]
[li]about 800yen for a full-on value meal at McD (burger, drink, fries)[/li][li]1000 yen for a “Supercuts”-style haircut (“normal” salons would be upwards of 3-4000yen)[/li][li]120 yen for a canned drink[/li][li]300 yen for a standard subway ride[/li][li]1500 yen for a new release movie in the theater[/li][li]100-120 yen for an english language newspaper[/li][li]etc.[/li][/ul]
Now, this was Tokyo so prices are much higher. In fact, I was given an extra 30,000 yen per month on my salary just for living in the Kanto area.
I also lived in Japan for a few years (courtesy of Uncle Sam) and at the time( early 80’s), the yen rate was around 280yen/dollar. At that time a Kobe steak dinner cost around $20-$25, what are they now?
For that price you can get the Japanese equivalent, which is a beef bowl (big bowl of rice with thin strips of beef and onions) with miso soup and tea. McDonald’s cheapest combo is 410 yen, and a Big Mac with fries and drink is 580 yen. Serving size may be smaller, I’m not too sure. A can of Coca Cola is 120 yen at the vending machine, and a can of the cheapest store brand soda at the supermarket is about 70 yen.
Train ride: 160-250yen, more if you change lines.
Grande coffee at Starbucks: 350yen
Big Mac set (sandwich, fries, drink): 600yen
small 2-bedroom apartment 1 hour (by train) from Shibuya: 72,000yen/month
larger 2-bedroom apartment 10 minutes (by train) from Shibuya: 190,000yen/month
electricity (2 people’s usage): 2000-4000yen/month
water/sewer (2 people): 1500yen/month
new computer, near top-of-the-line, not incl. monitor: 110,000yen
bag of 6 apples: 400yen
medium-quality pork: 150yen/100g.
lunch at a restaurant: 800-1500yen
beer (can, supermarket) 125-300yen, depending on quality
beer (mug, restaurant) 300-600yen
cigarettes: 250yen/pack
rice (10kg bag): 3500-5000yen
CD at Tower Records: 2500yen
Video rental: 360yen/1 week
Paperback novel, in English: 2000yen
In the 8 years I’ve been here, exchange rates have varied between 80-145 yen/dollar, yet the prices never really changed all that much. If anything, Japan’s been having deflation over the past few years.
Also, when I was living in a relatively rural/suburban area (Hamamatsu, Shizuoka pref.) prices actually seemed to be higher than in Tokyo for just about everything except rent.
I’ll add that one of the differences between here and North America is that there seems to be a lot more variation price-wise.
Eggs, for instance. There’s a supermarket around here that sells a pack of 10 eggs for 70 yen. There’s another, fancier, supermarket that sells packs of two, yes, two eggs for 400 yens. They’re supposed to be “special” eggs.
You can get a sirloin cut of Tasmanian beef for less than 600 yen, or a sirloin cut of Matsuzaka beef for more than 7500 yen.
You can spend as much as 12,000 yen or even more on one mellon but you can also get a bowl of udon noodles for 150 yen - enough for a quick meal.
3000 yen for a single Matsutake mushroom, or 40 yen for a small pack of enoki mushrooms.
Books tend to be fairly affordable. 300 to 700 for a new paperback, about 1200 to 2500 for a hardcover. And the binding and paper quality is top-notch too. That’s for Japanese-language books, of course.
I just bought two pairs of fairly nice pants for 5000 yen at Uniqlo, a really cheap clothing store that has surprisingly fashionable designs. They had winter coats on sale for 3000 yen. If you’re not too tall, you can buy very nice business suits for under 20,000 yen.
Also, you need to consider the lifestyle differences to get an idea of the real cost of living.