Why This Topic Landed in Japan

With the weak yen now entrenched, higher inbound prices and the soaring cost of overseas travel are felt as Japanese people's own alienation — a renewed recognition of impoverishment. BYD's sales decline meshed with an existing view of Chinese EVs as "propped up by subsidies," while the outflow of retro games stirred anxiety that "cultural assets are being bought away." A relative decline in economic standing runs as a shared undercurrent across all three threads. Some claims are overstated, however: Japan's EV sales overall actually rose, and BYD has growth in other markets.

Key Reaction Themes

  • Mockery and wariness toward Chinese EVs — A read that "they don't sell once subsidies are cut, so the product is weak," along with fears about EV fires.
  • Overseas travel as out of reach — Bravado ("a bowl of miso soup costs 4,000 yen abroad," "Japan has plenty to see") set against the blunt truth that "people just don't have the money."
  • Resignation over cultural outflow — Even on retro-game price spikes and exports, some shrugged: "emulators are fine," "should've bought it back then."

Sources:

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

BYD's EV sales down 14.2%

Japan Automobile Importers Association data showed BYD's May sales down 14.2% year-on-year (364 units), with a subsidy change cited as a factor.

Comments:

  • "BYD is down 65% even in mainland China — they'll go under eventually."
  • "A shuttered pachinko lot near me is packed with brand-new, plateless BYDs. It's like a powder keg — genuinely scary."
  • "You couldn't pay me to ride a Chinese EV."
  • "364 units… that's a different kind of 'scale,' in a bad way."

Japanese giving up on overseas travel

A thread on why Japanese travel abroad less than other developed nations pointed to stalled economic growth and the weak yen as the main causes.

Comments:

  • "Because we couldn't really grow the economy."
  • "They say a meal abroad now runs 5,000 yen, and at pricey places a bowl of miso soup is 4,000."
  • "From Hokkaido to Okinawa there's too much to see — no need to go abroad."
  • "'No money' is the real reason; the rest are excuses people give because they don't want to admit it."

Retro games surging in price and flowing abroad

With the weak yen, foreign buyers are snapping up retro games, pushing domestic prices up and driving rare titles overseas.

Comments:

  • "Software that used to cost a few hundred yen is now tens of thousands. The weak yen has foreign buyers hoovering them up, and rare titles keep leaving the country."
  • "Should've bought it back when it was cheap."
  • "This is the fault of the people cheering on a weak currency."
  • "What's spiking is mostly junk games that just happen to be rare — most titles are still a few hundred yen."