From our other sites
The story
Ranmaru Kishitani (25), son of actor Goro Kishitani and singer Kaori Kishitani and head of a company running overseas study-abroad programs, reported on social media on August 28 that he had returned from California, USA. His Instagram Stories post read, “Every country’s airport specialty: brutal inflation. This water and cookies cost $15 — ¥2,400. The yen is done for,” a message reflecting the current weak yen and high prices that also became a hot topic on 5channel’s Entertainment/Sports News+ board. In the thread, opinions split between those blaming the price gap on the weak yen and those pointing to US inflation as the real culprit, with debate continuing over which factor — exchange rates or prices — was more to blame.
8/28 (Fri) 19:17
Ranmaru Kishitani (25), whose father is actor Goro Kishitani and whose mother is singer Kaori Kishitani, and who runs a company handling overseas study programs, reported on his own social media on the 28th that he had returned from California, USA.
On his Instagram Stories, he casually laid out the brutal state of inflation and the weak yen, writing “Heading back to Japan — thanks, California” and “Every country’s airport specialty: savage inflation. This water and cookies cost $15 — ¥2,400. The yen is done for.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
you've gotta pair it with how insanely high US prices are too
Insane prices = insane currency devaluation
Normally that should be offset by the yen strengthening to balance it out, but instead we're getting a crazy weak yen on top of it,
so yeah, it IS a weak-yen problem
This is the endgame for a country that kept selling its own labor cheap
You could call it a tragedy caused by Japanese "kindness"
but it's also just plain stupidity
America's prices are just abnormal to begin with
Japan's cheap prices are the abnormal ones
You don't even need to go abroad to see it clearly. We've entered a "convenient" era lol (likely means 時代/'era' — probably a typo for 地代/'land rent' in the original)
Right lol
In Japan, ¥2,400 would get you a lavish spread.
So it's a mystery why so many people are so pessimistic about Japan.
"State-to-state differences": California's baseline prices are higher, so that's a factor to some degree.
"The biggest factor": more than the state difference, the main reason is the special pricing of airports as closed-off locations. Even within California, prices don't get this extreme once you're at a supermarket in town.
Even somewhere like Bangkok, stuff inside the airport is pretty pricey
He's just spending money he brought with him lol
14-hikari lolol
Guess it's because he's got two of them
Water and cookies should be like ¥250
The weak yen is real, but the dollar itself is inflating at a brutal pace too
Though he probably thinks it's all his own doing
but Japanese students can barely afford one even after two weeks.
That's what a country getting poorer looks like.
What exactly are you looking at to call Japan poor, lol
In Japan you never have to weigh rent against your life,
but in the US, skimp on rent and you're literally risking it lol.
A video I saw said you need at least ¥200,000 a month in rent if you don't want to end up dead.
In Japan anyone can live wherever they like — a lot of people don't realize how lucky that is.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Talk of the weak yen tends to invite comments like “the government’s policy is to blame,” but here both the weak yen and US inflation are working together. As the thread itself pointed out, even at a stronger ¥100-to-the-dollar rate, the water and cookies would still come to roughly ¥1,500 — meaning the root issue isn’t just the exchange rate but the sheer height of US price levels themselves. On top of that, airport shops face limited foot traffic and little competition, a structural quirk that tends to push prices even higher than in town, a pattern commenters also noted at airports elsewhere, like Bangkok. The thread split between a “weak yen is the main cause” camp and a “US inflation is the main cause” camp — both are partly right, and it’s the two factors combined that add up to the “¥2,400” figure. It’s also worth noting that because the poster is the child of a celebrity couple, commentary about his personal standing got mixed in alongside the economic discussion, with the two conversations running on parallel tracks.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “Ranmaru Kishitani, back from the US, reveals airport ‘water and cookies’ price: ‘The yen is done for’.”
Leave a Reply