I actually agree with your comment that Takara appears to be charging a lot more than the converted US retail price. What is untrue is the notion that I am somehow making excuses for Takara charging excessive prices. Who wants to pay more?
The comment I made in relation to the AUD being weak against the JPY was in response to DELTAprime's message about Jetfire being $211 including GST from HLJ. I normally look at HLJ's site as a reference for import prices because it has the cleanest design. I look at AUD, not USD. Other sites could be even cheaper but aren't as well designed in my opinion.
Here are my conversions:
* Current exchange rate: AU$1 = ¥78 (round down to ¥76 due to HLJ conversion fees) $189 + GST
* Jan 2018 highest exchange rate: $AU = ¥88 (round down to ¥86 due to HLJ conversion fees) $167 no GST
The $167 was fairly close to the projected local maximum RRP of $149.99 so I thought nothing of it.
To be honest, Japanese retail price to USD conversion didn't even register until I checked the JPY to USD conversion now on HLJ. Even the forum post above by Sinnertwin about the Robot Kingdom (RK) USD price didn't register with me because I rarely look at RK and USD.