PRICES IN JAPAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 October 1933, Page 8

PRICES IN JAPAN

TOOTHBRUSHES Id EACH.

Passengers by the steamer Kitano Maru, which reached Sydney recently from Yokohama, said they had been astonished at the cheapness of nearly all classes of goods in Japan. They quoted some amazing prices. Mr. A. Bongiorno, managing director of Bongiorno Brothers Pty., Ltd., Nhill, Victoria, said that Japanese wholesale prices were lowei' than he had thought possible.

Tobacco pouches, worth 5/- each in Australia, were sold at 3d each, toothbrushes at about a halfpenny each, children’s tricycles at 3/6 each, sandshoes at 5d a pair, and sun glasses at 3d or 4d a dozen.

Retail prices were correspondingly low, silk of good quality costing 6d or 7d a yard, straw hats 7d each, and bicycles £l/2/6 each.

Woollen and leather goods appeared to be the only articles selling at anything like Australian prices. First grade petrol, of a brand well known in Australia, cost 7Sd a gallon. Taxi hire for a journey up to six miles cost 9d. A journey of 60 miles by electric train cost 1/6. People worked seven days a. week, and 10 or 12 hours a day, with two or three days off a month. *

Wages were very low, a. labourer receiving about 7/6 a. week. Mr. A. E. Sanders, a grazier, of Kaniva, Victoria, said he had been impressed by the extraordinary industry of the Japanese people. It. was absurd to say that Japanese goods were being dumped in Australia—they were only being sold at normal Japanese prices. Throughout the country, every available inch of ground was being used for agriculture, and mountains were terraced, or carried timber. Pences were unknown. Everywhere he had gone in Japan he had been received with the greatest courtesy. During his visit he had not seen a dirty child or an unshaven man.