Less noticeable, perhaps, is the spate of new foreign shops.
My first visit to a foreign shopping mall was in Salvador, Brazil, about six years ago.
"If you look at Warsaw, you see only foreign shops, banks and brands – C&A, Bank Millennium, H&M, Carrefour.
But it is hard to see how squandering Japan's corporate wealth on foreign shopping excursions will help the country's long-term competitive position.
In Brazil it has a 1-litre engine and two doors, with air-conditioning extra.Shopping aroundBrazilians respond to whopping price differences by going on foreign shopping sprees.
This means they are more comfortable doing deals with foreigners, and they are better at integrating the foreign firms they buy with their new Japanese owners.The foreign shopping spree is internationalising Japanese industry by the back door.
Parents are asking why manufacturers cannot increase production to meet demand, and some say the makers might be encouraging the foreign shopping limits to force Chinese to buy the same products at higher prices in China.
In the interior, where locals are not yet used to foreign shopping jaunts, "middle-class incomes are still rising .Luxury firms are having to adapt to this fragmentation in the Chinese market.
"That means, unfortunately, that we won't be in a good position to spot them expanding the program through foreign shopping expeditions, and that policies based on export controls, sanctions and interdiction won't get much traction, either," said Joshua Pollack, one of the experts presenting the findings this week.
