I believe that many friends already know the news that the yen has continued to fall recently, and just when everyone thought that this was the lowest and impossible to be lower, something surprising happened again.
We know that after the pandemic, the yen has been very low. Since the end of last week, the depreciation of the yen has accelerated further since around 10:30 this morning, and once exceeded 1 dollar = 160 yen.
The yen also fell to 100 yen to 4.54 yuan against the renminbi at one point.
There is a tense atmosphere in the foreign exchange room in Tokyo. At the beginning of this week, the yen exchange rate fluctuated sharply, leaving the Japanese government anxious.
However, after that, the yen exchange rate rose sharply from 159 yen to around 159 yen at around 1 p.m. and rose sharply to around 1 dollar = 155 yen at 2 p.m.
There are also speculations in the financial markets that the government and the Bank of Japan are intervening in the yen buying market. However, just now, when faced with questions from reporters about the continued decline of the yen, Kanda's financial officer said, "There is no comment now."
Since April 27, the day before yesterday, Japan has entered Golden Week, and this holiday can be up to 10 days off, and Japanese people are busy traveling around.
Japanese people are very fond of traveling overseas, especially Hawaii, and people who like to travel to other parts of the world often say that half of Hawaii is Japanese. However, although the Japanese are still traveling overseas during Golden Week, they have chosen more cost-effective places. In South Korea, for example, Japanese tourists say that "travel to Korea is short and cheap".
Hawaii is still full of Japanese tourists, and according to ANA, the number of reservations for flights to Honolulu in Hawaii has reached a record high during Golden Week 2024.
Hideki Natsuyama of the News Management Department of the ANA CX Promotion Office said that the Hawaii Line is still the top vacation destination for Japanese tourists, even in the face of a weaker yen.
However, a Japanese person interviewed on a trip to Hawaii said that "I brought a lot of food from home" and that "even though I was a newlywed, I might choose to save on food or something."
Most of the interviews were about "savings", and at the moment 10,000 yen is exchanged for dollars at currency exchange offices, which is only about 62 dollars.
The staff at the currency exchange office said that they were also taken aback by the current exchange rate, and some people complained to us, can we only redeem this?
It is no wonder that the yen exchange rate has fallen by about 4 yen in a week, which is actually an anomaly.
When shopping in the local area, you can especially feel the depreciation of the yen. If you go to the local supermarket, the radish is 11 dollars, which is about 1,700 yen.
A bag of bean sprouts costs $3.5, which is about 550 yen.
In addition, the breakfast at the restaurant is an omelet breakfast set, and the popular Benedict egg is 5082 yen. You can eat more than 10,000 yen for two people, which is a very high cost for Japanese people just for breakfast.
Many Japanese tourists in Hawaii go to fast-food restaurants to get cheaper, but even so, a Big Mac burger that costs 480 to 580 yen in Japan costs about 7 dollars in Hawaii for 1,100 yen.
At the same time, due to the depreciation of the yen, the number of foreign tourists, especially Chinese tourists, began to increase.
According to the National Tourism Bureau, the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan in March was 3,081,600, exceeding 3 million for the first time in a single month. The Japan Tourism Agency's total spending of visitors to Japan for the period of January ~ March increased by 52.0% from the same period in 2019 to a record high of 1,750.5 billion yen.
Labor Day is coming to the mainland, which is originally the peak tourist season, and according to surveys, most Chinese tourists choose Japan rather than South Korea this year. Last year, China finally allowed group travel to South Korea after six years and five months, but many Chinese tourists bypassed South Korea this year.
According to a report by Chinese financial media "Caixin" on the 23rd, as China approaches the Labor Day holiday, the search volume of travel-related websites for Japan travel has surged. According to Ctrip.com, the No. 1 country in China's travel industry, the most searched overseas destinations related to the Labor Day holiday are Japan, Thailand in second place, and South Korea in third place. In addition, according to statistics from other travel websites, the search index for "Japan" has increased more than three times in the latest week compared to the same period last year.
Chinese tourists are choosing Japan, on the one hand, because of the cherry blossom season some time ago, and on the other hand, because of the unprecedented depreciation of the yen. The exchange rate on the 15th of this month reached 154 yen per dollar for the first time in about 34 years since 1990. The exchange rate of the 100 yen against the yuan has also fallen from 4.9 yuan in mid-March to 4.6 yuan recently, and the yen continues to depreciate.
The Chinese media "Zhongxin Jingwei" reported: "Luxury stores in Japan are already crowded with Chinese. "Due to the depreciation of the yen and various discounts, LV bags worth 20,000 yuan (about 430,000 yen) in China can be about 20% cheaper in Japan. In an interview with the outlet, a Chinese tourist who recently traveled to Japan said that "almost all brand-name items are 10% cheaper or more than buying them in China."
Because we all know that the yen exchange rate has been falling in the past few days, a few days ago, a domestic friend just asked Xiaobian to return to China on May Day, to see if I can help bring a Chanel bag, I don't know if I don't know, the price difference is really quite large.
The same Chanel CF handbag, now priced at 95,500 yuan on the official website in China.
The price of the same handbag on the Japanese official website is 1,981,100 yen, which is equivalent to about 91,445 yuan at the current exchange rate, which is 4,055 yuan cheaper than the price on the Chinese official website. If you buy it as a tourist, plus 10% tax exemption, it can be much cheaper.
I have to say that it is really fragrant to buy and buy in Japan with RMB now.
The number of Japanese yen exchange customers at domestic banks is increasing dramatically, and the average spending of Chinese tourists visiting Japan from January to March this year was 293,100 yen, making it the largest foreign tourist in terms of spending. During the same period, 1,327,900 Chinese tourists visited Japan, about eight times the number of the same period last year, but it is worth mentioning that even this is only about 60% of what it was before the 2019 coronavirus pandemic.
Due to the unprecedented depreciation of the yen, there are now more Chinese buying houses in Japan, and housing prices in Japan and even Tokyo are still in a relatively reasonable price range, although they are also rising, but overall they are still very valuable for investment.
At this stage, if the Bank of Japan maintains its previous monetary policy and does not intervene, the yen may continue to fall for some time.
Naturally, some people are happy and some are worried about this volatile exchange rate, but now is a good time for those who want to study in Japan and travel. Especially when you travel, you can enjoy different scenery, buy more things with less money, and experience better services. The editor is here to wish everyone a happy May Day in advance, a good meal, a good time.