One thing I didn't address in this post is the prices. It's a LOT cheaper to eat ramen in Japan. Some factors I can think of off the top of my head for why ramen in Japan is cheaper, with relative importances somewhat unknown to me:
1. labor saving technology (no waiter service, just order on a machine)
2. lower unit labor costs on top of that, especially since "cooking ramen" is a less specialized skill in Japan
3. more customers you can cram into a small space (or to flip it around, lower rent per seat)
4. number of customers per seat per unit time, given the social norm to eat ramen quickly and leave
5. ramen is fast food in Japan whereas Japanese food, even ramen, is high status in the US
6. amount of competition
1-4 bring the costs down for producing ramen. 5 & 6 bring ramen prices in Japan closer to production costs, while American ramen restaurants can charge a premium and potentially get away with it. I'm actually surprised now that the price differences aren't even bigger, because everything I could think of points to ramen being cheaper in Japan.
"Food in general is significantly less expensive in Japan." Right. One big factor surely is that Japan is simply poorer than the US—#2 of my explanation is part of it.
"they're in something very close to a recession" Yes, and you can say that about most of the past 30 years in Japan. Decades of deflation is much worse than a little inflation...
"In the US, on the other hand, our food prices are exorbitant." I'm actually not going to complain about restaurant prices for the most part. Yes, there's certain places that are ripoffs. But most restaurants barely turn a profit, or don't, while barely providing for their employees—tipping is probably a thing that makes all of this more opaque and unfair. So restaurant prices are probably cheaper than they should be if the working conditions were what people in office jobs would expect. And yes, this may mean that the conditions in Japan are worse.
One thing I didn't address in this post is the prices. It's a LOT cheaper to eat ramen in Japan. Some factors I can think of off the top of my head for why ramen in Japan is cheaper, with relative importances somewhat unknown to me:
1. labor saving technology (no waiter service, just order on a machine)
2. lower unit labor costs on top of that, especially since "cooking ramen" is a less specialized skill in Japan
3. more customers you can cram into a small space (or to flip it around, lower rent per seat)
4. number of customers per seat per unit time, given the social norm to eat ramen quickly and leave
5. ramen is fast food in Japan whereas Japanese food, even ramen, is high status in the US
6. amount of competition
1-4 bring the costs down for producing ramen. 5 & 6 bring ramen prices in Japan closer to production costs, while American ramen restaurants can charge a premium and potentially get away with it. I'm actually surprised now that the price differences aren't even bigger, because everything I could think of points to ramen being cheaper in Japan.
Food in general is significantly less expensive in Japan. Sadly, they're in something very close to a recession.
In the US, on the other hand, our food prices are exorbitant. Our rich people are hoarding wealth and causing inflation.
"Food in general is significantly less expensive in Japan." Right. One big factor surely is that Japan is simply poorer than the US—#2 of my explanation is part of it.
"they're in something very close to a recession" Yes, and you can say that about most of the past 30 years in Japan. Decades of deflation is much worse than a little inflation...
"In the US, on the other hand, our food prices are exorbitant." I'm actually not going to complain about restaurant prices for the most part. Yes, there's certain places that are ripoffs. But most restaurants barely turn a profit, or don't, while barely providing for their employees—tipping is probably a thing that makes all of this more opaque and unfair. So restaurant prices are probably cheaper than they should be if the working conditions were what people in office jobs would expect. And yes, this may mean that the conditions in Japan are worse.