Price of commodities in Stockholm is about twice as much as that in Tokyo.
However, there is a opposite example; rice.
In Stockholm, price of rice is about half that in Tokyo.
Considering about PPP, price of Japanese rice is around 4 times as much as that of Sweden. This is because Japan protects their rice market from international trade.
"Rice is soul of Japan!", Japanese farmers say sometimes.
This is partly true because historically, rice had been used as money in Japan, and now, preserving sceneries or communities in rural area.
Thinking about that, Japanese government has kept price of rice higher, and this deprived farmers from ingenuity or insentive for making money. In other words, soil was protected but soul was lost.
I do'nt think Japan should completely stop protection of rice, but I believe should change the policy now.
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