Eating Pizza in Japan is one of my guilty pleasures. Sometimes you can only take so much fish and rice; you need something with real meat and grease. Days when I crave western food I pick up the phone and call the local pizza man. Of course after I finish gorging myself on pan fried goodness I feel guilty. Not because I’ve submitted to the great Western culture beast but because pizza is so expensive in Japan. It pains my cheap ass to hand over almost double what a pizza would cost back home.
In Japan the pizza companies seem to have gotten together and conspired to price fix the cost of pizza extraordinarily high. Looking at the costs there shouldn’t be much difference. Take a look at typical Hawaiian pizza ingredients:
| Ingredients | Cost in America $USD | Cost in Japan $USD |
| Flour | 1.33/kg | 1.48/kg |
| Olive oil | 11.99/L | 11.15 / L |
| Salt | .12/100g | .37 / 100g |
| Sugar | 1.46/kg | 1.46/kg |
| Tomato sauce | 2.94/L | 5.06 / L |
| Mozzarella cheese | 2.22/100g | 1.11/ 100g |
| Pineapple | .35/100g | .33 / 100g |
| Ham | 1.65/100g | 1.65/100g |
| Onions | 1.95/100g | .37 / 100g |
I got the American grocery quotes online and the Japanese prices from the supermarket but the prices are almost the same. The prices should be even cheaper for the pizza store as they would be buying from a wholesaler or using a franchise discount.
Labour costs might be a little more in Japan with minimum wage in Tokyo for 2009 standing at 791yen/hour or $7.40/hour ( 2009 average dollar yen rate was, 93.68 ). But a large city like New York also has a minimum wage of $7.25/hour. OF course in New York pizza places probably use illegal immigrants that are paid a lot less.
Rent on the actual pizza restaurant should be about the same for Tokyo and New York. Actually New York pizza places probably pay more. As for the delivery, both use motorcycles or other cheap methods of pizza to door service.
So looking at all the costs the prices should be the same but they’re not. A large Hawaiian pizza from a New York Dominos ( Yes I know New York has infinitely better Pizza than Dominos ) costs $17.41 to get to your door. Where as the same size pizza in Japan (14 inches equals 36cm) costs 3100 yen ($29.04)
Unless there is some hidden cost in Japan, there has to be some sort of price fixing between the big pizza chains.
For other Living in Japan posts try these:
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| How to become big in Japan | How to cycle in Japan | Getting the around the Japanese health care system | Making Friends in Japan | How not to be a hostess |
Gaijinass 
pizza in london is extortionate too, rarely under £10 for a small one delivered. many places wont even deliver orders for under £12.
outside london it’s not so bad, but honestly, it’s about twice the price of a chinese delivery meal to order pizza in london.
tastewise, that’s for the really low end of the scale, you’re asking to pay more for dominos or something or any sort of nice thin crust italian style pizzas with fresh veggies etc.
Mmmk, it’s over a year after your post aaand..I just have to tell you..you’re STILL wrong.
I don’t know what area’s of London you’ve been getting your pizza from but I can get a supersized (15/16 inch) for £9 and under (8.95 at my favourite and most healthy place). Delivery is generally at most capped at £10 but generally it’s just under the price of the usual “any pizza any size” deals that most places have as they know these are what attract customers, and ultimately make them regulars/the stop to get for any party needing pizza.
It completely depends where you are outside london for food prices, so that generalised to the extreme statement is wrong.
YOUR taste preference is just that, so there’s no need for me to go into that tbh, though dominoes is generally quite nice; they make significantly smaller pizza’s both there and at pizza hut but for around 70 – 100% more cost.simply cos of their name.
I’m now seeing how weird it is that of all the opinions on this site, i’ve become bugged enough to respond only to a comment about London pizza’s…so i’ll be taking my leave >.>…
I have long wondered this myself (thanks for that price breakdown on the ingredients!). My only thought is that they can’t charge $17 for the pizza because even if they did, the demand just isn’t nearly as high as in the US for pies so they have to make more per pizza. That being said, I think the lack of of demand might justify a $5 or $6 dollar increase but not a $12 one, so yeah, there’s a little bit of fixing going on.