Prices of 3,000 products to rise from Tuesday; postal rates also going up

How is it in a free market economy that all these prices go up on the same day? Collusion anyone?

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The retail prices of about 3,000 food and drink items will rise from Tuesday. Postal rates will also increase.

Thanks new PM Ishiba!

Looks like according to your stated goal Japan is emerging fully from deflation.

The working populace are filled with joy.

Prices going up again?

Wages aren’t!

Politicos are pledging more though…

the price increases are mainly due to higher costs of imported raw materials, the weak yen and higher transportation rates.

What is baffling is that the yen has been strengthening from almost Y159 to the current Y143. Also oil has really dropped of late, and inflation in other countries has really been curbed. So why now the increase again. Also, I have forgot how many increases we have seen, but I'd like to know exactly how much and how often the prices have gone up. It seems like it is almost quarterly!

I too have watched the yen strengthen, yet fuel prices don’t fall.

When the inverse happens the rises are instantly apparent.

The conclusion here is that Japanese wnergy corporations are showing their greedy agendas to screw their customers!

Obviously, the prices have to increase to ration the supply of goods because all the foreign tourists are drinking all the Calpis. Right?

Why on the same day?

‘People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.’ Adam Smith, "Wealth of Nations".

Why on the same day?

I think it’s because many major changes in Japan are implemented on either April 1st or October 1st.

Teikoku Databank probably polled the major food product producers in order to compile their report.

But just a guess.

… will increase by 4% to 23%.

… by 2% to 36%.

… by 4 to 14%.

Data shows real wages in Japan not increasing by these amounts, unfortunately.

While we get poorer and poorer....

The destruction of the middle-class.

Do us all a favor and let us know what products are not going up in price. I'll bet the list is shorter!

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Incoming Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, after being elected ruling Liberal Democratic Party president on Friday, said at a news conference that he would take steps to boost wages to cushion the blow to households from rising consumer prices.

Same as the last 4 Prime Ministers ! Please do more urging!

But thank you LDP PM Ishiba for already helping the Japanese people to emerge fully from deflation as was their heartfelt goal!

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-pm-hopeful-ishiba-says-complete-exit-deflation-crucial-2024-09-10/

hopefully that will put an end to the “deflationary doom spiral” talk.

deflation is always described as a death spiral, and inflation is good because bankers love it.

Incoming Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, after being elected ruling Liberal Democratic Party president on Friday, said at a news conference that he would take steps to boost wages to cushion the blow to households from rising consumer prices.

Could you get any more vague?? What steps??

Unless he implements a minimum wage of 1500 per hour and a minimum monthly full time wage of 300,000, I don't see much changing. Just more hardships, and the people that will get hit the hardest are those with families. So much for measures to prop up the birth rate.

Asahi Soft Drinks will increase the prices of over 90% of its products, including Mitsuya Cider and Calpis Water, by 4% to 23%. Ito En will increase the prices of 207 items, including Oi Ocha and Healthy Mineral Barley Tea, by 2% to 36%.

This is significant and rather concerning. Let's say they go with 15%: that would mean, if a bottle of green tea costed you 100 yen before, now you will be paying 115 yen.

Japan's adventurous Covid spending is now coming back to bite them big time. If only there were people back then talking about and predicting this?

If only items going up are Asahi soft drinks, potato chips and postage, it's not going to impact us very much. As long as the essentials, like beer, don't change, we'll be OK!

Japan Post says the rate increases come as the number of mail items has been decreasing due to advances in digitalization and other factors

What the hell does that even mean??? Due to advances in digitization and other factors? Can you be even more vague?! Digitization should bring prices down, not up. Freaking liars and morons.

what a nice start of October.

I am speechless...

One measure the gov can do is slash sales and income taxes. Abe kept raising and raising the sales tax. Drop it back down to 5% to ease the burden and slash people's income tax as well to put more money in people's pockets. That would go a long way to cushion the rise in prices.

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And the prices rise. Complaining about it would be like getting angry at the weather. The only solution is is to make yourself wealthy.

Lorem ipsumToday  08:35 am JST

Japan Post says the rate increases come as the number of mail items has been decreasing due to advances in digitalization and other factors

"What the hell does that even mean??? Due to advances in digitization and other factors? Can you be even more vague?! Digitization should bring prices down, not up. Freaking liars and morons."

digitization is customers using email instead of mail.

they have less revenue but the same fixed costs.

"" Asahi Soft Drinks will increase the prices of over 90% of its products, including Mitsuya Cider and Calpis Water, by 4% to 23%. Ito En will increase the prices of 207 items, including Oi Ocha and Healthy Mineral Barley Tea, by 2% to 36%. ""

As usual stick with mineral water and BEEEERS or even Whisky and you will be just fine.

No Sugars, No preservatives, No Flavorings, and Colorings. keep all this junk out of your body so you can live a healthy life regardless of how short it could be !!!? , Die with dignity and NEVER leave your body at the mercy of the makers of these Sugar poisoned drinks. LOL

This is just a further impact of the famed & touted MMT protagonists of ABENOMICS. Years and years of bad monetary policies.

Manufacturers delay the price increases as much as possible, and disguise many of the increases by introducing "new size!" or "Big Bag!" while actually reducing the content of the packaging : SHRINKFLATION.

But much of the citizenry is oblivious because they don't pay attention to the details. For an example, a regular bag of potato chips used to be 85grams, but now it's maybe 68grams at a slightly higher price than say ten years ago.

My grocery bill every time I go now has definitely gone up 1,000 yen. I always ask myself afterwards, did I buy that much?

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They’re going to have to do some serious downsizing at the post office.

Prices are rising in all the world.

Japan Post says the rate increases come as the number of mail items has been decreasing due to advances in digitalization and other factors.

Does this make any sense? Slow day so better increase the prices.

Can't trust these people.

Same with expressways that were supposed to be FREE from 2065 onwards, that was until last year when they decided to postpone it until 2115 in a little meeting completely out of the blue.

So basically every 3 months there is a general price hike. And what people don't realise that the hike percentage is not small at all, is quite big when you pille up different products or services per total.

On top of this, just pay attention to the SHRINKFLATION status, where the products are getting smaller and smaller, while their price still go up. The best ams simplest way to see that is at the swits shop, for example. Just look at the size of the cakes that are cureently sold which are almost half the size of what it used to be.

Or bags with different products which have lower and lower grammage.

Should we also mention that the Real Salaries are getting lower and lower every month?

Actually is there anyone who got a salary increase because of this inflation thing? Anyone? How about the Contractors, Part time workers or hourly workers? Did they or are they going to get any salary increase??

And the prices rise. Complaining about it would be like getting angry at the weather. The only solution is is to make yourself wealthy.

Very wise in Kansai!

This is what I always tell people who I see dirty, poor, homeless and struggling on the street.

Just be wealthy!

The food choices are still too limited in Japan.

Walk into a supermarket here and see the absolute lack of products available.

The aged also consume less and they are growing!

Less Japanese to consume forces companies to raise prices too.

Unlike the corner shop world image that is promoted in Japan, it is the case that major bulk buyers get a discount.

Less Japanese= less of a discount.

The increasingly poorer Japanese also don’t get the best deals either

https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Japan-s-industrial-output-in-August-falls-3.3-on-month

Great news … NOT!!

when will companies raise their salaries so people can live better lives and not struggle!!??

Lorem ipsumToday  08:35 am JST

Japan Post says the rate increases come as the number of mail items has been decreasing due to advances in digitalization and other factors

What the hell does that even mean??? Due to advances in digitization and other factors? Can you be even more vague?! Digitization should bring prices down, not up. Freaking liars and morons.

What it means is that digitalization has reduced the number of postal mail items and the income that it produces.

But the full service to accomodate postal mail service must remain in place to accomodate those who still rely on postal mail, including legal documents which require it. So the cost of the service must now be supported by a lesser amount of postal mail, hence the price goes up.

The Japanese Post Office has become a pain in sending international packages and letters. And expensive.

Welp…another quarterly round of

’what items do we switch for homemade alternatives, or just discard completely’ coming up.

But the full service to accomodate postal mail service must remain in place to accomodate those who still rely on postal mail

No it doesn’t!

I'll bet it doesn't affect the elite politicians one bit. Rise, Japanese people!

Japan's adventurous Covid spending is now coming back to bite them big time. If only there were people back then talking about and predicting this?

^ This 115%

I'll bet it doesn't affect the elite politicians one bit. Rise, Japanese people!

Japanese people: めんどくさいなあ。

Price gouging alive and well. What's the excuse this time with the yen increasing in value again? Still Covid? Still the war in Ukraine? Still the cost of oil? Still the weak yen?

No, it's simply because they can, and we have no choice but to pay while they make record profits -- the governments in other nations may be trying to hold price gouging companies accountable, but certainly not here.

Since the 1980s when companies started shifting profits from employees to shareholders/boardmembers there has been an emphasis on cutting costs (aka quality) and increasing profits.

This is throughout the world and is not the fault of any particular politician, more the decline of labor unions and the increase in globalization (aka getting it done cheaper somewhere else)

I guess edible containers will be coming next.

The food choices are still too limited in Japan.

What? In which universe?

Japan Post said postage rates for letters will rise

AND

Japan Post says the rate increases come as the number of mail items has been decreasing due to advances in digitalization and other factors.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster then.

"Hey guys, we have been getting less business, let's RAISE prices!"

"Great idea!"

This will be the first across-the-board price increase for mail since 1994, excluding the consumption tax hike.

"across the board" maybe..................but there have been multiple price increases, here and there over the last 10 years. Don't be fooled.

Hey guys, the quote is from Adam Smith. You may like to educate yourself on who he was and what his relevance is to the system you live under. Then you might not be so keen to disregard it. Maybe some might not want to believe that collusion among producers to deny the consumer happens - especially in 'very honest' Japan - but I can assure you it has been going on for a very long time. It tends to happen easily where there are industry associations and other ways of bringing producers and/or retailers together. Maybe time to see the reality.

@wasabi

What? In which universe?

In my broad and comprehensive world experience universe…

None of this sounds like a big deal, like 63 yen to 85 yen.

or see “2% to 36%” knowing that means 1 thing is 2% and almost everything else is 36%.

ah so what? until you think in percentages (and realize your pay increase was waaaaay less)

I remember 100 yen with a 3% consumption tax increase became….110 yen.

So, wages for teachers here have pretty much stayed the same for the past 20 years. If you factor in the increase in consumption tax, the rising cost of living and a host of other factors, the decrease in real wages or spending power has decreased by around 15% to 20%. Is Japan a sinking ship? Well, in economic terms…

This situation surely causes more poverty at Japanese society where inequality expanding.

But, ruling party LDP who caused it does nothing as ever, major media report prices-increasing only but don't even mention responsibility of politics, new leader of main opposition party is pro-financial ministry who always want tax-increasing.

Unfortunately, tough situation will be continue for many people.

I’ll be eating my lobster abroad instead of Japan on my next vacation-that’ll show the LDP my ire!!!

i want to send a letter from kyushu to sapporo. i’ll pay you 85 yen to deliver it.

any takers?

If you want to see the problem, go to a park early in the morning.

The basic problem is that Japan has a huge dependency ratio that gets worse every day.

There are only 2 workers for every senior in Japan. Organizations like the Japan Post and Asahi have pension benefits that must be paid, they need more money.

Workers in Japan are in for 20 years of "poverty" as wealth is redistributed to support boomers, the majority of which are physically and mentally healthy enough to work and contribute to society.

Other countries are trying to address their dependency ratio problems through mass immigration which is currently creating social cohesion problems. Those problems are likely to dissipate as immigrants are integrated.

An easy solution for Japan is to immediately raise the retirement age to 70 or even as high as 73 while allowing for an increase in the number and monthly stipend for a "senior disability benefit" for older folks who's bodies and minds fail before reaching the age of 70.

Madness when wages are not increasing.

The post office is a good example of why government workers (drones) should never be allowed anywhere near finance or business. They don't have a clue. Because they didn't look and size up the market and potential business, they missed out on the parcel delivery services like Yamato, Sagawa, etc. They could also have had all the internet business if they had been awake at the time.

Sleep on Post Office. We'll wake you when something happens.

That all balances out and only if basic need products' prices would be drastically raised, it becomes a problem in reality. Or is anyone here forced to buy the named softdrinks, potato chips or threaten at gunpoint to write a postcard? Of course not. In most cases you're just not affected, because the things you really want or think you need, are all out of reach anyway, regardless of price hikes and consumption taxes. If you have for example 5,000 yen and they raise the price of your wished product from 10,000 to 12,000, nothing changes. If they would raise your salary 20% and you now have 6,000, still nothing changes, you just cannot buy it. And the same with consumption tax, raised again or even completely tax-free, you cannot afford it at 10,000 or 11,000 either.

I have never experience the raise to my salary as a worker here since I entered my company 5 years ago. But I experienced high prices in different eras last 5 years ago. Where is the justice? No raise but common good prices are sky rocketing.. I should cancel my naturalization plan..

@Jayszee

You need to find another employer.