・Prices tend to vary by city in Malaysia
・Buying Japanese products outside Japan is significantly more expensive
・Some people think “I’ll just buy it locally while traveling,” but buying Japanese products overseas is ridiculously overpriced
・A trend popular even before COVID is living in a city with low cost of living while earning a salary from a company in a high-wage city
SG-manSingapore $1 is approximately ¥115
Malaysian 1 Ringgit is approximately ¥30
(Exchange rates at time of writing)
SUWANOSEJIMA🇯🇵 Ira | Island Manga Artist 🇸🇬
🌏 Traits: ADHD / ASD, IQ 115, BMI 17.7
✒️ International Island Manga: MAHARAJIMA (まはらじま)
🇸🇬 Life Abroad: Attained Singapore PR as a "Singapore NEET"
🇹🇼 First Japanese national to successfully explore all inhabited islands in Taiwan (2025)
⛴️ Explored 500+ islands in just under 3 years
🌏 World Record Holder for the fastest completion
By sales amount 🇲🇾<🇯🇵<🇸🇬
Aeon’s retail prices in Malaysia are significantly cheaper than in Singapore.
Johor Bahru in southern Malaysia isn’t particularly inexpensive, partly due to its proximity to Singapore.
Here, as an example from outside Asia, we compared the prices of Kellogg’s products in Malaysian and Singaporean supermarkets.
At the AEON in Johor Bahru, it was less than half the price of Singapore.
Photography is prohibited at Aeon, so I’ll include photos from a Singapore supermarket for comparison.
In Singapore, even on sale, a box costs $6 (about ¥690). Normally (depending on the store), even supermarkets considered to offer Singapore’s lowest prices charge $7.7 (¥886) per box.
TOKYO-TOSHIMAThe same product was priced at about $3 (approximately ¥345) at this AEON store in Malaysia. That’s less than half the sale price in Singapore!!
FUTAOIJIMABy the way, Kellogg’s used to sell Chocoa in Japan. You could eat it without milk. But these ones sold in Southeast Asia get rock-hard without milk and peel the skin off your mouth. What kind of high-defense food is this?
I compared American products at a drugstore in Johor Bahru.
Dove became widely known in Japan through its catchphrase commercial, “Doveならぁ〜”. Back then, it apparently became a prime example for kids to mindlessly imitate. For a major corporation’s commercial, it was unusually casual, using the old ganguro gal（ガングロギャル） way of speaking. It’s just the tone of voice that’s different.
youtube Doveならぁ〜
At the planning stage presentation, I wonder what reaction the uptight employee had upon hearing this. It felt like a presentation where they risked their career. This is the true strength of Dove employees.
The first photo shows 25.9 ringgit (regular price). The second photo shows the sale price of 5.75 S$ at Singapore’s Fair Price (regularly 9.95 S$).
That’s roughly ¥780, ¥661, and ¥1,144 respectively. The regular price for body soap is about three times what it costs in Japan.
At Matsumoto Kiyoshi in Tokyo, Japan, Dove products made for the Japanese market were sold for around ¥400.
Japanese products (especially cosmetics) are relatively expensive overseas.
Photographed at a drugstore in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Prices are three times higher than in Japan.
Fair Price sales in Singapore
Every time I return to Japan temporarily, I buy basic cosmetics and daily necessities.
Buying stuff in Singapore is just ridiculous…
The only things worth spending money on are the bare minimum for food and drink, and assets like real estate.
