[justworkout]

Food prices have shot up an insane amount. I was getting milk for 130 yen a carton 3 years ago and now it's 230 and up. Wheat is virtually all imported and prices for that are incredibly high. Even when food is produced locally (only about 38% self-sufficiency rate--most are exports[1]), it depends on foreign materials. e.g. Animals are fed imported grains, plants use imported fertilizers, manufacturing depends on imported materials.

The biggest complaint from Japanese Japanese (not expats paid in USD) is that food prices have blown up tremendously. It's literally daily headline news. But yeah yeah, the underclass is only complaining about their Apple hardware prices.

[1] https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/editorial/yomiuri-editorial/...

[Danieru]

Did you move here three years ago? 2020-2021 was the heart of COVID deflation. I remember paying 110yen per litre for gasoline at Costco. Nic Hotels were 1万 a night for our family of three.

Any anchoring off late 2020 is super misleading. Milk at 130yen is not a reasonable price before COVID. Wheat to consumers at gyomu super or Costco has not moved in price, which is reasonable consider it has always cost several multiples over wholesale.

Worst has perhaps been sushi. The selection of 110yen sushi had gotten slightly smaller.

Overall, Japan has a lot less inflation than you'd expect considering the exchange rate.

[fomine3]

Had you bought 1L milk for 130JPY? It's too cheap even in 2019 so I suspect that it's loss leader on your supermarket. In my area, price jumped from 190 to 230.