I think everyone knows how to convert Iene (円) into Real (R$). Just go to Google and search for 100 iene or 2000 iene and the value in Reais will appear. In this article, I don't want to talk about that, I just want to give a tip on what I do to understand the Japanese economy. In the article, we will really know if a product is expensive or cheap.
Today I was watching a video from CrazyJapanTV and decided to share what I always do to calculate the value of the Yen and know if a product is expensive or cheap in the eyes of the Japanese. Inside the supermarket, I always admired the prices of the products but wondered if the product was pricey or affordable.
If you take the value in Ienes and convert it to Reais, of course the product will seem expensive to our eyes. They earn approximately 5,000 to 8,000 Reais in salary. And in Brazil, one earns only R$ 900. So let's teach in this article 2 calculations to arrive at an approximate value of the product as seen by the Japanese, and the real value that it would cost if the Japanese salary were equal to ours.
Table of Content
Economic exact value
The exact economic calculation is a calculation made to know how much a certain product would cost if the minimum wage were the same as ours.
Why do this? People often say that the cost of living in Japan is high and like to talk about how certain products are very expensive. For example, they take a single manga (フルーツ) that costs approximately 300 yen, which converted to reais would be R$ 7.00, it’s quite expensive, isn’t it true?
But in the eyes of the Japanese? Do you really think they think they're paying R$ 7.00 on a single fruit? For them, they are only paying 300 Yen.
They earn between 150,000 to 300,000 Yen in salary which is equivalent to 7,000 Reais. With 7,000 Reais you can buy 1,000 Mangos (fruit). Of course, even if a manga in Brazil costs 0.50 Centavos with R$ 900 minimum wage, you can buy 1800 manga.
That's what you should understand, you can't say if a product is expensive or cheap in Japan without taking into account the country's salary and economy.
To know if the product in Japan is expensive or cheap, we have to convert the Japanese salary to the Brazilian salary. For that, we can take 300,000 and divide by 320 which gives approximately R$ 900 which is a minimum wage in Brazil. (Or divide by a number that gives approximately R$ 900 or the value you want to compare.)
We chose 300,000 イエン which was the result of a salary of 1,300 yen per hour and 230 hours of work in the month. There are people who don't even earn 1,000 yen per hour.
So, a manga that costs 300 yen (R$ 7.00) in the eyes of the Japanese, taking into account the salary they earn, is simply 0.93 cents.
It doesn't have to be exactly divided by 320, you can use another calculation and salary value for both.
The amounts can vary, there are people who don't earn even 200,000 yen, if you want to do the calculation using 200,000 yen as a base salary, please do the division, until you have an approximate Brazilian salary that you want to compare, and use the division as base.
Calculating on Other Salaries:
Maybe you think that 300,000 yen per month is not the correct basis to calculate it, so here we have the amount you should divide the product for each salary, which matches 1000 Brazilian reais.
- 100,000 yen (Divide by 110)
- 150,000 yen (Divide by 160)
- 200,000 yen (Divide by 210)
- 200,000 yen (Divide by 260)
- 400,000 yen (Divide by 420)
Quick Calculation
This method that I use as soon as I see the value of a product in the window is not exact and not very logical, but it is quick and practical. This is just a suggestion. To avoid this confusing calculation, and quickly calculate the value of a product and know if it is expensive or cheap. You can just take the value in Yen and put a comma in it.
Example: Manga 300 yen (R$ 7.00) / Quick Calculation = 300 円 = R$ 3.00
You will be doing the same calculation as the previous one. However, consider that the Brazilian minimum wage is 3,000 reais. So if you earn approximately that in Brazil, this calculation is perfect for you.
Examples
Below we have a table for you to understand better, what a Japanese person thinks he is paying for his products with his high salary.
We have the Product Name, its approximate value, its approximate value in reais, the value transformed using the quick calculation (salary = 3,000R$), and the exact value using the calculation to convert the Japanese salary (300.000 円) into Brazilian salary (R$ 900) which is dividing the value by 320.
| PRODUCT
Product's name | IENE
Price | R$
Exactly | CALCULO RÁPIDO
3,000 R$ Salary BR | EXACT CALCULATION
300,000 as Base |
| Manga | 300 | 6,00 | 300 = 3,00. | 0.93 cents |
| Drink 1 Liter | 250 | 6,36 | 250 = 2,50. | 0.78 cents |
| Ipad | 58.800 | 1.500 | 58.800 = 588,00. | 183 Brazilian Reais |
| ticket to Brazil Round trip | 200.000 | 5.000 | 200.000 = 2.000,00. | 625 USD |
| AP rent | 50.000 | 1.270 | 50.000 = 500,00. | 156 Reais |
| 1 kilo of meat | 20.000 | 500 | 20000 = 200,00. | 62 USD |
| Kit Kat package (12) | 188 | 4,78 | 188 - 1,88. | 0.58 cents |
| Internet 1GBps | 3.500 | 89 | 3500 = 35,00 | 2 USD |
We can see that with a month of work, one can afford a round trip ticket to Brazil. And that an Ipad in the eyes of the Japanese costs only R$ 183 if the salary is just R$ 900 per month. Not to mention a package of Kit Kat with 12 for only 58 cents in the eyes of the Japanese. And internet of 1Gbps for just 10 Reais per month in the eyes of the Japanese.
Before comparing any product in Japanese. Always take into account the Japanese salary, and try to see the value of the product in Japanese eyes. Of course, for tourists your 7,000 reais will not last a month in Japan. But for those who live there, there is no absurd value in the products.