Difference for Japanese and US airfares?

I've noticed that if you want to fly from Tokyo to New York City and back, you can easily find a discount package from a Japanese travel agency where you pay around 48,500 yen (about $418 perhaps) for round trip.

However, if you want to fly from New York City to Tokyo and back (even if using the same flights as the Japanese travel agency flight package), the lowest you can find a ticket for is around $900.

My question is, are there any American travel agencies that offer similar prices as the Japanese travel agencies? Or, are there any Japanese travel agencies that work for America to Japan and back? I can speak Japanese so even if the travel agency does only Japanese, I would be fine. I'm just curious as to why Japanese have such a cheaper time when travelling to the US than we do travelling to Japan!

The fares are often quite different, depending on where the round trip originates.

Try JTB or IACE. They can often give you a much better deal than you can get through the airlines or some place like Travelocity. I have used IACE for flights and for rail passes (they give you a better deal than JTB on those) and have been quite satisfied. I recommend interacting by phone rather than e-mail.

There are other agencies and consolidators but I don't have any personal experience with them.

Don't get too excited by the fares you may see on the following web sites, as they don't include all charges. You can only get a "real" price by contacting the agency.

http://www.jtbusa.com/enhome/

http://www.iace-usa.com/index_us.htm

I went to IACE shortly before I bought my ticket from JFK to NRT.

The cheapest fare they had - same airline - AA - was $20 less.....

It depends on many factors--the route, the airline, and the seasonal time frame. I saved more than $400 on two tickets earlier this year by using IACE. Savings are probably less on competitive routes like NYC, which unfortunately don't apply to me. But I think they are still worth a phone call.

I agree, Uma, it certainly can't hurt to try :)

In my case, AA has been basically running a 'sale' price the past couple of months....

I've actually had the opposite experience than the OP where flights from Japan to San Francisco and back are twice as expensive as the reverse.

It makes sense though as the loads are completely different depending on which way you are going. It's like driving during rush hour traffic. Everyone wants to go one direction so if you are opposite the masses it is very easy.

Anyway, I'm currently buying tickets right now and an interesting thing I'm finding is that if I try to purchase the same tickets from the same airline, the price changes depending on whether I'm using the Japanese site or the American site.

My suggestion is to just email all the travel agents in Japan (STA, NO. 1, IACE) and get quotes and double check them against the airline's sites. You'll often find that the airlines' sites are quite competitive (and sometimes cheaper) without as many restrictions on the tickets.

Tickets prices vary so much, it's a mystery to me how airlines actually set prices. We flew over twice from the southern US to Osaka where the tickets were $700 and $600. Then another trip, they were goign to be $1200 (luckily we had enought miles and only had to buy an infant ticket for the baby). Same time of year, same flights, etc..

My wife generally uses a Japanese travel agency with an office here in the States to book her flights. They seem to have the best deals.
She also starts looking for good deals up to 6 months in advance. Two years ago, we bought tickets in early Sept for a flight in early December and got great deals. So shop early.