Upper Middle Class Japanese

As a continuation of Upper Middle Class American and Singaporean, I have done a simple analysis of what a Japanese counterpart will face for income tax and purchase of a car.

From internet search, the income tax base on taxable income (after rebates) for year 2011 is as follow:-
6.95 to 9 million yen = 23% of taxable income exceeding 6.95 million yen plus 962,500 yen.

Base on the current exchange rate of US$1 = 81.79 yen, a taxable income of US$100,000 is equivalent to 8.18 million yen. The income tax payable by a upper middle class Japanese salary man will be 282,900 + 962,500 yen = 1.245 million yen which is equivalent to US$15,190.

From BMW Japan, we can see that a 2012 model of 640i in Japan is selling at 9,330,000 yen including tax. This is equivalent to US$113,826.

Over a 10 years period, ceteris paribus, the Japanese salary man would have paid a total of US$265,726 for income tax and the car. The US counterpart would have paid US$353,600.

According to a website, the average annual income in Japan for 2011 is 3,788,460 yen which is equivalent to US$46,219. From Big Mac Index 2011, a big mac in Japan sells for 320 yen which is equivalent to US$3.90.

I have this feeling that after years of deflation in Japan and the rest of the world inflation, the world has finally caught with the Japanese cost of living.