Quote Originally Posted by seanachie View Post
I am just not seeing many bargains in a country that has supposedly been hit hard but a drop off in tourists.
Nor will you, I'm afraid. I can attribute that to a few main reasons.

First, the exchange rate sucks! Bad. With the yen at an all-time high, and the dollar at an all-time low, the disparity is just too great. For us here in Japan, buying products abroad (yay me!) or making international investments is a wicked deal right now! Hello shopping spree! But to come to Japan, converting money to yen is expensive. Retailers know this too, and are reluctant to take a hit on their margins simply because of the rate -- many people here feel that the government should be intervening and weaken the yen, which brings me to point number two.

Japanese people are NOT good businesspeople. They're not. By and large, they really suck at it compared to other Asian countries. Somehow, after WWII, Japan got a reputation for being adept at business, and they were -- but ONLY when the business came to THEM. People were knocking on Japanese doors and all what Japan had to do was open them. Whereas now, with the weak yen, international customers are hitting other countries where their money gets them further (like China), leaving Japan scrambling to lure and re-attract business they've lost because of their inability to sell value, quality, and give consumers an advantage OTHER than having low prices.

But otherwise, there is very little concept here of supply and demand theory, and price elasticity is a mystery to them. There is also a LOT of old money... There are so many local shops, for instance, carrying merchandise that hasn't moved an INCH from the shelves in YEARS (because they don't need to) -- and yet, they stay open. A friend of mine tried to buy a motorbike from a local retailer, that was covered (almost literally) with an inch of dust, but when he asked for a discount, the owner let $2000 walk out the door (and have the bike collect another inch of dust) rather than give a $100 discount... And that is COMMON.

The hospitality industry in Japan is neither used to dealing with foreign tourists, nor is it prepared to do so anytime soon. A recent survey of the Japanese hotel industry revealed at least 27 percent of the country's hotels DID NOT WANT to have foreign clientele at all and 35 or 142 surveyed hotels outright disallowed foreigners from entering. A separate, (unrelated) study revealed that the majority of Japanese, when they get old, would rather be attended to by a ROBOT than a non-Japanese nurse or caregiver... As cool and interesting as Japan is, the xenophobia and racism also runs very deep.

Anyway, a whole thesis could be written on just this topic alone, but to sum it up, Japan is a fiercely independent nation, who would rather implode than accept outside aid for anything... And even with campaigns aimed at bringing in tourist dollars lost after the March 11 disasters, it must be done on THEIR terms -- which will mean full-price or nothing.

That shouldn't discourage anyone from coming here to visit. It's a lovely place. Everyone should see Kyoto at least once in their lives, and the coolness factor of Tokyo is tough to beat. But it will never be as cheap as a trip to many other Asian countries -- and I wouldn't expect many discounts or "special deals" as an incentive.