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Meanwhile the real wages are dropping like a waterfall and the cheap yen is hurting our lives disastrously. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15151006 https:/
by minebreaker 3y ago
Meanwhile the real wages are dropping like a waterfall and the cheap yen is hurting our lives disastrously.
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15151006 https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15151006
- amrocha 3y agoFunny how every single foreigner seems to think the "weak yen" is ruining everyone's lives and yet I've never heard a Japanese person complain about it
- yamakadi 3y agoMy wage in terms of dollars have remained the same for the last 5 years despite earning double. It's not ruining my life only because it takes longer for prices to increase here -- but they are definitely increasing. Japanese people also don't like talking about wages and not everyone compares what they are making to the dollar. I have heard plenty of colleagues, friends, and family complain. It's more about how the number of diapers in a bag has decreased steadily from 72 to 56 than boy my life is getting ruined by weak yen. The more prevalent complaints are from fellow mortgage borrowers. Variable rates in Japan have been steady for nearly 30 years, meaning a substantial number of borrowers are watching the central bank's moves like a hawk and are terrified of even any talks of rate increases. TLDR: We are just not loud complainers (and frankly, if any Japanese person you know is hopefully very lucky, they might be earning just enough to not notice it all)
- amrocha 3y agoI hear what you're saying about Japanese people not complaining as much, but I don't think it's just that. The only time they complain about 円安 is when they go abroad, which isn't very often. The problem is a lot more noticeable for foreigners living in Japan temporarily because they don't think of their worth in the local currency. They then generalize their problems to the rest of the population. When you think of your money in dollars, and you see it going down a lot, it looks like a life or death crisis. But the average person in Japan sees prices go up a bit, which is frustrating, but not to the same degree.
- cheviethai123 3y agoIt's a double-edged sword though. A weaker yen can increase export sales, however import value will be much higher. Currently, most products in Japan are made from Japanese companies, which is why the Japanese people don't feel the impact yet.
- amrocha 3y agoThere's a strong home market bias in Japan, and the government is helping with gas prices as well.
- mekster 3y agoManufacturing domestically doesn't mean it's not influenced. Much food and natural resources are imported, not to mention anything dollar pegged like smartphones are simply getting more expensive. Seriously, stuffs like iPhone and GPU feel stupidly expensive but when you check the price in dollars, they look acceptable.
- numpad0 3y agoNot to be judgemental, I doubt you usually hear a lot from Japanese person in the first place; most Japanese don't speak English at all. Locals speaking to a BBC reporter in fluent English don't happen in Japan or with Japanese users on Internet. Japanese public education curricula do include "English", but it's largely "English-Japanese document translations" classes than actual English, which is good for research papers and bureaucratic letters, works like any 2000s machine translation in conversations. The majority won't bring that technique out and employ it well to win an Internet pub fight, especially on societal-macro-economical problems, so you likely will not hear anything from actual Japanese people on this topic or anything else.
- minebreaker 3y agoI'm Japanese.
- amrocha 3y agoSorry for assuming you weren't
- mekster 3y agoWhat kind of exaggeration is that? Things are getting more expensive slightly over the years and that is nothing disastrous unless your life was already quite disastrous and made it even worse or you're purely an importer or rely on natural resources to see weak yen ruin your business. Otherwise, it's mostly life as usual.