Lens prices US vs Japan

Earwax69 wrote in post #15085965
I'll not count the change rate because for me 100yen = 1$. It's the way it is here.

Where is "here"? And I'm bringing truck loads of cash if you're selling yen at 100 yen on the dollar. If you can make good on that, I will concede your logic in this thread.

Meanwhile, back in reality...

Indeed. Plus the astronomical price of rent cannot help either, considering about a quarter of the country leaves near Tokyo. :/ It drives the price up of everything.

However, there was a time when Japanese products cost similar to, or cheaper than they did in America. Yes, the FX rate had a lot to do with this, but it shows that even with their multiple levels of wholesale, they can still get products out cheaply.

This model is what makes me cheer for faster depopulation.

Greetings -
It has nothing to do with taxes, import duties, protectionism or layers of distribution. It has to do with currency rastes primarily. Today at near 78 yen to the US$, every camera and lens is cheaper at B&H than buyng in Japam if you are using dollars, and even with shipping/duties, way cheaper. I am paid in yen. B&H is an absulute bargain, and in many cases 30%+ cheaper including getting it here. Duties are 5% of the combined total of product + shipping. More often than not, I never pay duties.
If you want to buy here using dollars, I don't advise it. If you live here paid in yen, B&H is the place to go.
Cheers,
John

I spent 15 years of my life off and on since I was 2 in Japan.
I remember the days of 360Yen to the dollar! Now 78... sigh.

Also, in the old days, there is an electronic district called Akihabara where every storefront for about five city blocks is all Japanese electronic sales. Used to be the best bargain area in the world. No more. Imagine five city blocks of B&H, Adorama, Calumet, J&R stores. It was awesome. You could spend two or three days just wandering and selecting cheap cameras, TV's, stereo equipment, computer equipment, etc... It's still there, but now nowhere near the bargains.

Oh well... shoganai. ("That's life")

What is the average salary in Japan?

A long time friend of mine is an ex-pat from Japan living now as a US citizen. He regularly goes back to Japan for several months at a time to attend to things still involving family. I know that some years ago he went to Japan and shopped very extensively, not merely in Tokyo, trying to purchase a particular camera body and zoom lens. In the end, the price he paid was equivalent to the same combination from B&H. But the ultimately lowest combo price would have been if he had purchased ONE item from B&H and purchase the other item in Japan!

Having been to Japan many times myself, on business trips, I have spent many hours looking in camera stores including Akihabara. And having also been to many other countries in Asia on business, I have always wandered the stores looking for bargains or items not found in the USA. While there are electronics items which I could find there, and not here, over the course of two decades I never ever found a better deal price wise on photography equipment, outside the USA.

Average salaries are comparable to U.S. However, in Japan most employees have two bonuses per year that can increase basic salary. At the moment they are higher than the U.S. when converting to dollars, and Japan is in a period of DEFLATION, so their disposable income, what little there is of it, is rising a bit.

Having said that, the cost of living is extremely high in Japan... much higher than most of the USA, so it's all relative. They also are now subject to a VAT on all purchases, and import duties for foreign products is VERY HIGH.

Let me also point out that we are VERY LUCKY in the U.S. not to be paying even MORE for Japanese products. The US $ has lost nearly 30-40% of value against the yen over the last five years, yet we have not seen that much of an increase in prices of Japanese products. If we were to be subject to a one for one cost increase in products in direct relationship to the yen value against the dollar, the 1DX for example, would probably be selling much closer to $10,000. $6800 is a bargain when taking these numbers into consideration.

Akihabara is a tourist trap. I think I caught it in the last of it's glory days (late 90's) before the internet killed it, an the maid cafes took away what very little of Geek Chic it had left. The only deals to be had are on the internet, which is where kakaku.com comes in.

This is a tricky one, and just like most things in Japan, it's pretty complicated. The salary is generally inclusive of bonus, just worded differently. I would say starting salaries are similar to the US. From there, it's a turtle race. Japan, for the most part, still employs a seniority-based pay scale. So, despite how hard you suck, you will likely get a 10,000 yen a month raise each year. Your bonus will always be the same relative amount of your salary... it's not performance based (most of the time). The starting salaries for those living in Tokyo is abysmal. Painfully hard to make ends meet, and new levels of frugality are set. There are some westernized countries which let you eat what you kill. Rakuten comes to mind. But these are few and far between, and until Japan hits rock bottom, I doubt we will see any employment trends changing.

The deflation issue is a difficult one. The country has been deflating for 20 years, yet there is more doom and gloom on the street. This could be for any number of reasons (higher unemployment, for starters) but is beyond the scope of this thread.

It's actually very low, depending on whom you're comparing it to. If you get tagged at all, it's 5%. That's high compared to the US where things fly under the radar almost all the time. However, most of the time they go unnoticed. The only time I've ever had to pay is on very expensive items. $2k USD and up. You can bring with you 200,000 yen of personal items when travelling, without having to pay a duty. Local sales tax is 5%, but the big news is the hike to 10% over the next few years, to pay for the tsunami.