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The story
A Belgian woman’s account of her stay in Japan was picked up by 5ch’s News Flash+ board. The trigger was her story that a meal costing 3,600 yen back home cost just 900 yen in Japan — and was delicious. The thread wasn’t all pride, though; plenty of sober comments like “That’s just people getting giddy over a weak yen” and “Belgium’s GDP per capita is 1.7 times Japan’s” came up too, splitting reactions between boasting about the cheap prices and worrying about what they actually mean.
(Omitted)
“Cheap, and…” — Moved by the food experience in Japan
During her stay, what left the deepest impression on Morgan was the food.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
No matter how different the cost of living is, what ingredient makes a 1,000-yen bowl of ramen that pricey?
Labor costs?
Sure, prices and labor costs are on a completely different level, but eating out there is just expensive by default.
Meals are something you eat at home.
From a Belgian's point of view, Japan is a poor country where people work for low wages
Japan is a cheap, developing country
Is that what this means?
It's the same way Japanese people look down on Southeast Asia
for having cheap food
Since when did Japan become like this?
Belgium's GDP per capita is 1.7 times Japan's
Didn't realize the gap had gotten this big.
Judging everything by "winning or losing" against other countries is the dangerous mindset here.
Talking about the nation's "pride being hurt"
who are you, some random individual, to even say that? lol
Nothing's going to change until wages go up.
This country is finished.
That's because the explosion of foreign workers has been dragging down service quality.
I buy fresh noodles and make the soup myself —
store-bought soup is too heavy to stomach.
It just means Japan is a country with lower prices than Belgium.
Same structure as when Japanese people used to look down on Southeast Asia for being a place where you could fill up for 100 yen.
No need to look down on anyone — Japan itself has become a country where a beef bowl costs 280 yen.
I'd say Japan has the bigger gap, honestly — only prices and the wages at a handful of elite companies are going up.
Belgium's only former colony was the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) — is that even a cacao-growing region? Never heard of it.
You'd probably feel it if you traveled to the rural areas of Southeast Asia.
Taiwan's already overtaken Japan.
Thailand and Japan seem to be about even now.
but then I realized that even I, if I went abroad and got interviewed, would probably just say "this country is the best!" too — so now I take them with a grain of salt.
Nobody bothers traveling to a country they dislike in the first place,
so of course they're going to praise it.
"This country is wild" — never thought I'd hear that said about this place.
Even now, 3,600 yen won't get you much in the way of proper sushi hand-made by an actual craftsman.
That's pretty much the going rate already, isn't it —
though if you go somewhere cheap you can still eat for around 2,000 yen.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
This kind of “Japan as seen from abroad” article is based on one tourist’s personal experience, so it’s worth remembering it doesn’t represent overall price levels. The thread’s point that “Belgium’s GDP is 1.7 times Japan’s” lines up with the real, long-term stagnation of Japan’s GDP per capita among major economies — it isn’t just exaggeration. Cheap eating out also comes down to the restaurant industry’s low-margin, high-volume business model and the strong culture of cooking at home. A weak yen makes prices look like a bargain to visitors, but the cost of imported ingredients and labor hits domestic consumers directly — so the very same “cheapness” ends up being read in opposite ways depending on which side of it you’re standing on.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Flash+) thread “In Belgium It’s ¥3,600 — In Japan Just ¥900: Belgian Left Speechless by What’s ‘Cheap AND Delicious’.”
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