Why Japan's CPI remains low while other economies grapple with inflation

In a country heavily reliant on imported natural resources, Japanese firms have so far mostly absorbed the rise in the costs of raw materials. In general, Japanese consumers get very upset at price hikes and tend to reduce consumption of such products in protest, at least for a while. For example, it was very easy to get a taxi for many weeks when taxi fares were hiked many years ago. Therefore, companies hesitate to raise prices and inflation gets muted. That said, many companies, especially in the food industry ranging from fast food chains to supermarkets, are raising prices now, so...