Niconico News covered a story in Chinese media comparing the price of the same product in Japanese and Taiwanese airports, finding that the same Japanese item cost four times as much outside the country.
The story reported on social media posts from Taiwanese users comparing the price of Dassai sake in Tokyo Narita airport to the price at duty free shops in Taiwan’s Taoyuan Airport: the same bottle cost JPY 2,200 in Narita but 2,270 Taiwanese dollars (TWD) in Taoyuan, equivalent to JPY 8,420. That’s about four times the Japanese price.
The comparisons sparked a flurry of comments, such as “the difference is too big”, “this is why people go to Japan to go shopping”, and “why is it so expensive even in duty free? Shipping costs?” Other users pointed out that the duty free shop was still cheaper than buying on board the aircraft or in domestic supermarkets.
Other users commented that the price in TWD for Japanese products seems to be their price in JPY, despite the fact that 1 TWD = 3.7 JPY. Even mainland Chinese tourists say that coming to Japan to buy cosmetics and skincare products in bulk is cheaper than buying imported goods in China, despite the cost of air travel and accommodation. The situation is also being influenced by more frequent flights from low-cost airlines.
Links
- Original article (Japanese, Niconico News, 1 December 2017)