物価
ぶっか
bukka
= prices of commodities; cost of living
物価 (bukka) is one of the most frequently heard economic terms in Japanese daily life and news broadcasts. Whether complaining about rising grocery bills or debating government policy, Japanese speakers reach for bukka whenever the overall level of prices is the topic.
物価 refers to the general price level of goods and services across an economy — what English speakers mean by “cost of living” or “commodity prices.” It is almost always used in the aggregate sense: bukka ga agaru means prices are rising across the board, while bukka ga sagaru means they are falling. When the focus is on one specific item’s tag, Japanese speakers prefer nedan (値段) or kakaku (価格) instead. In formal contexts such as government reports or Bank of Japan statements, 物価 appears in set phrases like bukka antei (物価安定, price stability) and bukka jōshō (物価上昇, price increase / inflation).
The three main price words trip up many learners. Use 物価 (bukka) for the economy-wide price level: Saikin bukka ga takai — prices in general have gone up lately. Use 値段 (nedan) for the sticker price of a specific item at a shop: Kono ringo no nedan wa ikura desu ka? — How much does this apple cost? Use 価格 (kakaku) in business or technical writing when quoting a formal unit price: Kakaku hyō o okuri shimasu — I will send you the price list. Mixing bukka into a single-item question sounds unnatural and overly macro, as if you are asking about national economic policy rather than a price tag.
物 (mono / butsu) means “thing” or “goods” and appears in words like kaimono (買い物, shopping) and shokubutsu (植物, plant). 価 (ka / ataeru) means “value” or “price” and is shared with kakaku (価格, price) and hyōka (評価, evaluation). Together, 物価 literally reads as “the value of things” — a transparent compound that captures exactly what economists measure when they track an index like Japan’s CPI.
Everyday use
最近、スーパーで野菜を買うと、物価が上がっているのをひしひしと感じます。
Saikin, sūpā de yasai o kau to, bukka ga agatte iru no o hishihishi to kanjimasu.
Lately, every time I buy vegetables at the supermarket, I really feel how much prices have gone up.
Casual / Social Media
物価が高すぎて外食減らしてる。自炊最強説ある。
Bukka ga taka-sugite gaishoku herashteru. Jisui saikyō-setsu aru.
Prices are way too high so I’ve been cutting back on eating out. Cooking at home is seriously the way to go.
Formal / Cultural context
政府は物価安定を最優先課題として、金融政策の見直しを進めている。
Seifu wa bukka antei o saiyūsen kadai to shite, kin’yū seisaku no minaoshi o susumete iru.
The government is advancing a review of monetary policy, with price stability as its top priority.
For decades, Japan was famous internationally for two contradictory reputations: Tokyo as one of the world’s most expensive cities, and the extraordinary value hidden inside it — a filling ramen bowl for ¥700, a convenience-store onigiri for ¥130, a beer from a vending machine cheaper than in many European capitals. This apparent paradox reflected Japan’s long deflationary era, during which 物価 barely moved for nearly thirty years. Consumers grew so accustomed to stable or falling prices that retailers competed fiercely on cost rather than raising prices, even when input costs rose.
Since 2022, the yen’s sharp depreciation and global supply disruptions have pushed Japan’s 物価 to rise at rates not seen since the 1980s. The shift has become a defining social topic: convenience-store chains quietly shrank portion sizes before finally raising prices, a phenomenon Japanese media dubbed stealth neage (ステルス値上げ). Public discussion of 物価 now carries a weight it lacked during the deflationary years, and the Bank of Japan’s moves to normalize interest rates are followed closely by ordinary households — not just financial professionals — as people reassess long-held assumptions about the cost of everyday life.