Not sure why you would go to McDonald's in Japan (or Thailand or Vietnam etc), but I do know that they are seen in some of those as somewhat special because the

Not sure why you would go to McDonald's in Japan (or Thailand or Vietnam etc), but I do know that they are seen in some of those as somewhat special because they are not local food so maybe they can get away with different pricing. In a lot of countries I frequent you would see (much) higher prices at McDonald's than in small local places. And japan was an example of that (been 3.5 years since I been). At my local in Portugal my wife and myself eat 2 lovely (and too large, we usually take half of one home), 2 coffees and a local sweet for less than E2/person. And that is not pre packaged stuff. The menu of the day costs less than E5/person and that includes wine, coffee, dessert, soup and a main; again, that is cooked that day and not fastfood or pre packaged. McDonald's is more expensive than that and it is a matter of taste if you go there or not of course. I have seen the same thing in many countries; especially Thailand and such, it is so much cheaper (and nicer, but that is taste again) to eat at a small local. I think those prices would probably make some countries cheaper even accounting for the wages. It is hard to compare apples to apples though; I don't like the typical American fast food and probably many don't like the food here. So even though it would be cheaper, if you would never go there...