Economy
The 'Japan Got Poor' Debate: Price Gaps and Vanishing Tourists
Three items about price and living-standard gaps with abroad merged into a 'has Japan grown poor?' debate. An Australia-based Japanese person was startled on a visit home that people were even skimping on the seaweed around rice balls; a former Germany resident marveled that water, which can cost about 500 yen a glass there, is free in Japan; and a thread collected everyday signs of belt-tightening. Self-deprecation mixed with cooler analysis and pushback that 'the bubble years were the anomaly.'