Originally Posted by bocastephen

I can't speak for other products, but Apple prices are always stable unless they authorize a retailer (Amazon, Costco, etc) to offer a discount. Once the product is released, the global pricing is set and does not change with currency fluctuations, so the ideal situation is to hope for a high value yen at the time of the product's release, then hope for the yen to fall against the dollar by the time you're ready to buy - that creates the arbitrage opportunity.

Not massive savings, but enough of a saving in currency plus not paying any sales tax can result in a sizeable cut in cost when both opportunities are combined. I think there is a website that tracks global pricing to help consumers spot arbitrage opportunities across currencies when traveling.