For some years Japanese cities had lost the “privilege” of being the most expensive in the world thanks to the yen weakness against other currencies. However, the currency fluctuations during recent years have strengthened a lot the yen value; and now Tokyo, Nagoya, Yokohama and Kobe are respectively the 1st, 4th, 5th and 7th most expensive cities in the world.
These are bad news if you are planning on coming to Japan during the following months, but for those of us that live here (and earn our salary in yen) it’s not a problem at all. In fact, prices in Japan keep going down or are frozen, so for those living here everything seems cheaper and cheaper.
Some years ago a regular meal in a normal restaurant in Tokyo could cost around 1,000 yen; today the price is the same, it hasn’t changed at all for the people living here, but:
-Before: 1,000 yen (162 yen = 1 euro), it was only 6.17 euro for a good meal.
-Now: 1,000 yen (110 yen = 1 euro), are now 9 euro for the same meal!!
Source: Yahoo Finance.
