[tommasi]

I think it depends on how you look at it.

In general, things are expensive in Japan, but you pay more in exchange for convenience.

Food is smaller but maybe American size is too big? It's something to think about since obesity is much more serious problem in the US. Food is smaller but obesity in Japan is much lower compare to the US.

Also, houses in Japan are much smaller than in the US so people do not buy things in bulks. So this is a great news for the retailers because they can charge more but since people do not have enough space to store items in bulks, people still choose to buy goods in small portion and end up paying more. Only 1/5 of land is habitable in a tiny island so gotta do everything we can to save more space.

To sum up, yea things are expensive but if you come from places like NYC, Chicago, and SF, you won't experience much difference. All the urban cities in the developed world are as expensive as Tokyo.