I was going through a Yamaha site and couldn't help but wonder that guitars cost more than India there!! Why is this the case? A friend of mine was coming from Tokyo and I was thinking of getting a guitar from there if there was a significant price difference.
Price is not dependent on manufacturing cost. Its based on market willingness to pay the specific price - and consequently sellers decision to price high sell less qty or price low and sell more qty. Its very possible that with elevated standard of living in Japan (and similarly Europe) things are actually more expensive there than in India (because even that is inexpensive for the ppl living there)
MIJ guitars are not as costly as it appears the quality of sound i awesome it is worth buying a MIJ guitar. I purchased a Edwards LP MIJ guitar with Seymor Duncans SH-1 and SH-4 pickups awsome guitar almost comparable to a gibson LP. It Cost me 78000 yen (45K approx).You can check the sound quality on the YOUTUBE EDWARDS E-LP-92SD/QM - Led Zeppelin(cover) - - YouTube. EDWARDS guitars are produced by ESP but sold only in japan. you can also check the MIJ Fenders they are very affordable comparable to Fender USA.
Yeah MIJ guitars are definitely worth the price considering the quality of those. I am a proud owner of MIJ Ibanez model who is unfortunately trying to sell it for saving up some money for buying other stuff by making use of such forums to spread the word bout it
