I was wondering...have JDM parts come down much in price in the US given the Yen weakness over the last 3-4 years? Doesn't seem like it and I'm wondering why.

 

Middle man

 

well said. if you have someone in Japan to help you out, a lot of JDM parts won't be that expensive.

 

The middle man does have a significant effect, yes. But I've found brand new product on Yahoo Japan that even after shipping is several hundred dollars less than from a distributor, which leads me to believe a lot of it can be markup.

It's not so much that the Yen is weakening, it's that the dollar is strengthening. I live in Korea and the won appreciated steadily until the last election and then the ratio bounced up over 10% and stayed there. Same thing with Yen.

 

As for the OP, I dunno. But its great. As said above shopping in japan can save big. I use www.nengun.com alot and things like the spoon cr93 wheels I looked at recently were around $200 cheaper shipped vs the same wheels here without shipping.

 

The Yen is actually weakening, but the Japanese government have passed kind of a stimulus package trying to get the Yen to stabalize. The Japanese economy as a whole is heading into the toilet right now. As for parts, they are crazy cheap right now because of the weakened yen, in regards to the USD. WHen I moved to Japan 3 years ago, it was maybe 80 yen to the USD. Now it's around 120 to the USD.

 

I was looking at Advans on Evasive and what was $620 a few months ago is now $500!