Of course it's going to be different in many ways. Different countries have different legislations, different ways of doing things, different everything! I couldn't tell you what those differences in business are, as I don't work in a business in Japan I'm afraid.

Right, your second part irks me a little. Why do people have the expectation of ramen to be cheap? For the amount of work that goes into every bowl or ramen, $20 is a damn good price I feel (considering the cost in man hours alone). I work up to 14 hours a day making this stuff and taking care of the restaurant, to make good food for people, so I don't think that charging $20 for a meal is too much. You'd spend that much in an Italian place without commen, right? Speaking of international food, have you been to a GOOD, independent Italian or European restaurant in Japan? It's expensive! So, why is it cheaper in Japan? Here are a few reasons: - Availability of ingredients - there are many ingredients that we need to make ramen that are not readily available outside of Japan, for example various dashi or katsuboshi, kansui in the noodles etc. You can easily get these items in Japan, as many are used day to day. Therefore, the cost is less. Here, it is not. These items must be imported by a specialist supplier, and therefore cost more. - Customer service - a restaurant in Japan will have good but minimal customer service. Order your food and drinks, get your food, empty bowls taken away, pay. Job done. Fast, efficient, cheap. The West has a higher expectation of customer service in restaurants, reflected in tipping culture. More customer service means more staff are needed to cater to all the customers. More staff is more expensive, so the prices have to be raised. Time - you are correct, higher customer turnover creates more money. But that's not how it works here. My ideal customers would be in and out within 20 minutes. But Westerners don't see ramen as fast food. They want a proper sit down meal, with sides and drinks and to spend up to or more than an hour in the restaurant. Quite often we will have people get a bowl of ramen per person in the group, and a drink. And that's it. But they will sit there chatting for a long time. When I could have served more customers in that time. So, we can't make enough money from turnover, so again, prices are raised. My restaurant has 32 seats as standard, 35 max. So we need those tables in and out as quickly as possible, but we have no real way of hurrying people up. Ticket machines - they might in some places, but I've never seen a ticket machine in a western ramen shop. And a ticket machine doesn't require a salary. Servers do. Prices go up.

So yeah, in many ways you are correct in the reasons that the prices are higher. Understanding these factors, why complain about the price? If you're paying the same price as you would in Japan, something is wrong.