New Tokyo Restaurant Charges Foreign Visitors More
A new restaurant in Tokyo is using two-tier pricing that means foreign visitors pay a different price for their meals.
Tamatebako is a restaurant in Tokyo's Shibuya district that serves all-you-can-eat seafood buffets. Red snow crab, oysters, bluefin tuna and grilled salmon roe are some of the 60 items customers can choose from.
Prices start at 6,578 yen — or about $42 — for lunch on weekdays. They go as high as 8,778 yen — about $56 — for dinner on Fridays and weekends.
Those prices include as much food and alcohol as you want for 90 minutes.
But Japanese people and foreign residents of Japan pay a discount price, which is cheaper by 1,100 yen, or around $7. That brings the cost as low as 5,478 yen — or about $35 — at lunchtime on a weekday.
The restaurant opened in April, at a time when the number of visitors coming to Japan is increasing.
In March, Japan welcomed 3.1 million visitors from other countries. It's the first time that number has been higher than 3 million in one month — even including the time before the coronavirus pandemic.
The increase is partly because of the weak yen, which has made Japan much cheaper to visit.
But the yen's low value also means prices have gone up for Japanese consumers and businesses.
Speaking to TBS News Dig, the restaurant's owner, Shogo Yonemitsu, said there are pros and cons to doing two-tier pricing, but he was thinking of the problems of the weak yen and increasing prices when he introduced the idea.
While unusual in Japan, two-tier pricing isn't uncommon in other parts of Asia. In Thailand, for example, foreigners hoping to visit a national museum may be asked to pay up to 12 times more than a Thai citizen.
