According to Nippon TV, the yen has depreciated for two consecutive days to the lowest exchange rate in 34 years of 1 dollar = 155 yen, contributing to the "buying spree" of foreign tourists.
The British Post Office compared the prices of food, coffee, and drinking water in 40 cities around the world, and announced the "ranking of tourist destinations with low cost of staying", and Tokyo ranked fourth in the world.
Take a look at the cities ahead of Tokyo: Hoi An in Vietnam (about 9,900 yen), Cape Town in South Africa (about 10,500 yen), and Mombasa in Kenya (about 10,600 yen).
If you don't include accommodation, it will cost you about 11,400 yen per person per day in Tokyo, which is less than half the price compared to about 27,650 yen per day in New York.
Anchor Takahiro Inoue bluntly said: "It's cheaper to go to Japan than to Southeast Asia now!"
According to the Japan Tourism Agency, the per capita travel expenditure of foreign visitors to Japan in January~March 2024 is about 209,000 yen, an increase of 50,000 yen compared to 2019.
The average number of days that foreign tourists stay in Japan is 9.3 days, which is also an increase from 19 years.
Because of the sharp depreciation of the yen, there are more attractions to visit and things to buy than before on the same budget, so of course you have to spend as much as you want.
Many foreign visitors to Japan have extended their vacations, and it is common for them to travel for more than two weeks, with some visitors from Switzerland and Denmark staying for as long as a month!
The large number of foreign tourists entering the country can be regarded as a joy for Japanese department stores. According to the latest data released by the Japan Department Store Association, the total sales of department stores nationwide reached 510.9 billion yen in March, marking the 25th consecutive month of growth.
Among them, duty-free sales for inbound tourists increased by 2.5 times to 49.5 billion yen, the highest value since the survey began in October 2014, and a record for the third consecutive month.
Tourists spend money in Japan without mercy, but foreigners who work and live in Japan are unspeakable.
According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Consumer Price Index for April released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the price index excluding fresh food in Tokyo's 23 wards was 106.4, up 1.6% from the same month last year.
Although the growth rate has been shrinking for two consecutive months, the rising cost of imported raw materials due to the depreciation of the yen has led to high prices in Japan.
In terms of wages, the income received by foreigners is undoubtedly reduced in the currency of the country. Although the average salary increase rate in Japan's spring bucket this year is more than 5%, and the average monthly salary has risen by more than 15,000 yen, small and medium-sized enterprises do not have such a high level of salary increase.
According to a survey of about 5,800 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan, about 40% of companies plan to raise or have implemented salary increases in 2024, with an average salary increase rate of 3.3%.
In Japan, about 70% of employees work in small and medium-sized enterprises, and if the rate of wage increase does not keep pace with the increase in prices, it is equivalent to a decrease in the actual income of workers.
The Bank of Japan announced at the monetary policy decision meeting on the 26th that it would keep the current monetary policy unchanged, and said that "the depreciation of the yen does not have a great impact on the tone of the price increase rate." ”
The yen immediately fell to $1 = 156 yen, and the market is waiting to see when the Japanese government will intervene.
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