/ck/ - Food & Cooking

I looked for this shit because you assholes are constantly recommending it. Found it, and its nine bucks, that's a couple months ago and its gone up in price yet again.
I thought Japan was an efficient, first world country with a solid supply chain, manufacturing expertise, and just general business savvy and technological skills. A country like that would be able to compete fairly on a global market, but that's the opposite of what I am seeing here.
Japan has failed, getting utterly destroyed in value by seemingly lesser countries. Really, what happened to Japan? They had so many advantages, and this is how they posture? I had a favorable opinion of them in the past, but now I'm struggling to justify it. Ten dollars for mayo? Requesting a direct reply from the Emperor himself, because these circumstances seem extraordinary. The only conclusion here is the country is on the brink of collapse.