[Nyororin]

The price is high in Japan because the prices are high in Japan.
They aren`t imported - they`re bred in the country. There is no real reason other than that they are expensive to begin with, so everyone expects that price and stores sell at that price.

If a store were to sell for cheaper, they actually risk not being able to sell the animal as a highly discounted price implies that there is something wrong.

The average price is just high. This goes for pretty much all breeds other than the native Japanese breeds - Shiba in particular - that you can find for dirt cheap if you look around.