THE JAPAN NEWS
 
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The prolonged depreciation of the yen could affect how people spend money on the upcoming year-end and New Year holidays. Prices are higher for imported food ingredients used for New Year foods, Christmas presents and the products for which bonuses are expected to be used. People are likely to refrain from traveling abroad during the holidays, compared to recent years.
 
In contrast, tourist spots popular with foreign visitors are booming. Those in the industry have said they will be able to start 2015 in good form thanks to the prolonged weaker yen.
 
Dinner table impact
 
The yen weakened since the time around the launch of the second Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in late 2012 and has been further weakened by the additional monetary easing by the Bank of Japan.
 
“Fresh food prices seem to be rising further. I have to be thriftier,” said a 40-year-old homemaker who came shopping at Akidai, a supermarket chain in Nerima Ward, Tokyo. At the store, the price of asparagus imported from Australia, which augments winter dishes, increased by about ¥50 a package from that of the previous year. The woman shopping in Nerima has been pulling back on spending since April, when the consumption tax rate was increased, but money still seems to be tight.
 
Higher prices have also been seen for imported seafood. According to the nation’s consumer price index in September, the retail price of salmon increased by 17 percent from the previous year, and the price of shrimp was up 19 percent.
 
The supermarket chain’s president Hiromichi Akiba, 46, who is currently concerned about the cost of the whole shrimp that are a feature of New Year’s osechi dishes, said: “I try to provide the shrimp at the lowest price possible. But as that will barely generate profits, we might keep the minimum quantity in stock.”
 
The price of wine, which people have more opportunities to consume around the year-end and New Year’s holidays, has been going up since last year. Meidi-ya Co., a retailer dealing with imported food, has decided to raise prices after the turn of the year, having previously raised prices in autumn last year. Seeking customers’ understanding, an employee at the supermarket said, “We feel sorry about increasing prices twice in a short period, but we have reached a limit.”
 
Higher production costs
 
A wave of price rises are sweeping through the products that consumers plan to buy with their bonuses.
 
At Aoki Holdings Inc., which operates a chain of men’s clothing stores, shop prices for suits increased by 7.2 percent on average from a year earlier. As 95 percent of the company’s suits are produced abroad, the purchase costs went up. An employee at the public relations section said, “We are making efforts to reduce the impact of the price increases on customers by adding other value to our products.”
 
Akase Wood Supply Co., a furniture maker based in Okayama Prefecture that imports wood from the United States, raised prices for goods such as beds and tables by ¥5,000 to ¥10,000, starting this month. An employee at the company said, “As our products can endure long-term use, we hope customers purchase them with a focus on quality.”
 
Regional impacts on tourism
 
The annual number of foreign tourists who visited Japan reached the 10 million mark at the earliest date ever this year.
 
A 31-year-old tourist rickshaw puller in the Asakusa sightseeing area of Taito Ward, Tokyo, said, “The number of customers increased, including nationalities I have never served before, such as Vietnamese, and I am busy right now.”
 
According to the ward office, the number of foreign tourists who visited its tourist information center in the Asakusa district in October increased by more than 30 percent compared to the same period in the previous year. An official at the ward office said, “If the trend continues, it will be helpful for the local economy.”
 
According to Nippon Travel Agency Co., this year’s booking situation for overseas tours around the year-end and New Year's season shows sluggish sales in expensive destinations such as Europe when compared to last year. An employee at the travel company said, “Prices of tours have risen further from the previous year, and customers also feel a sense of burden for money spent on shopping and eating.”
 
On the Internet, there are lively exchanges between people seeking information, with questions such as “Where can I enjoy [sightseeing] even in the weaker yen situation?” and suggestions such as “You should exchange currencies prudently, checking the exchange rate.”
 
Currency traders thrive
 
A 35-year-old female company employee living in Tokyo who invests in foreign exchange margin transactions as a hobby said, “The BOJ’s additional monetary easing has brought me good results this year.” She is happy because she earned ¥50,000 from October.
 
According to the Financial Futures Association of Japan, the value of foreign exchange margin transactions in October marked the second highest level in its history, standing at ¥503 trillion. A member of the association said: “As it is easy to understand the foreign exchange margin trading mechanism, in which dollars are purchased with yen, and the dollar is sold when the dollar price rises, many individual investors started the trades as the yen depreciated.”