[steven]

chiuchimu, I find myself agreeing with your sentiment about expensive hand bags and all that kinda stuff. I think they're a waste of money and sometimes wonder what people could do if they used their money on more useful things.

However, I'm not so sure that putting an end to that could make such a huge difference. Why are you talking primarily about handbags and fashion goods? Your original statement was that Japan should distance herself from the US. All those fashion goods you've mentioned seem to be from European countries. Do you have any data that would suggest that if Japanese women stopped buying all those imported fashion goods then there would be significant changes economically for Japan?

Sometimes I just don't get why people decide to focus on certain things. Like the other day, I saw a sign in a town nearby that basically said "make sure to buy your cigarettes in your hometown!". Instead of deterring people from smoking, they were basically encouraging it as long as you buy your cigarettes in your hometown. We're talking about getting taxes. They didn't say to buy only Japanese cigarettes either... in otherwords the taxes on imported cigarettes will support whatever town you buy them in. Likewise, I wonder if the same doesn't apply to expensive fashion goods.

Maybe a lot of these goods aren't that expensive, it's just Japan's way of making more money off of them. I doubt anyone here is into this kind of thing, but if you ever look at imported pro audio goods in Japan, the price difference is so extreme it's almost comical. For an example, an API 3124 mic pre will be about $2600 in America while in Japan it costs 390,000円. Given the exchange rate right now, that's paying something like 390,000円 for something that costs 220,000円 somewhere else. That's basically 175%.

Similarly, if you've ever looked at airplane tickets from Japan to the US vs from the US to Japan, you'll notice the prices are about double. Is there an explanation for that? I was always under the impression that it was the Japanese side of things raising the prices for their own benefits.

So while I have no basis other than the simple observations I've made for making this claim, I wonder if Japan isn't making a lot of money off of these imported goods due to taxes.