Apple iPhone 17 Price Rise Confirmed After Japan Retailers Go Early

Apple has officially raised iPhone 17 prices in Japan by up to 10%, but the move isn't actually new, Japanese retailers were already charging the same higher price weeks earlier, which I reported on at the time. The increase is driven by yen weakness, a different cause to the memory chip shortage behind Apple's Mac and iPad price hikes last month. So far, U.S. and other markets remain untouched, and there's a clear reason why Apple is protecting iPhone pricing longer than everything else.

Apple has confirmed a price rise for the iPhone 17 in Japan, and if you’ve been following my reporting on this, it won't come as news.

The entry-level iPhone 17 with 256GB now starts at ¥142,800 ($877) on Apple’s official Japan store, up roughly 10% from ¥129,800 ($797), according to the current prices on the Apple store (via Bloomberg). The iPhone 17 Pro rose a similar amount, from ¥179,800 to ¥194,800, an 8.3% increase, and Apple Watch and AirPods models saw price bumps of up to 10% too.

Back in June, I reported that Yodobashi Camera, one of Japan’s largest electronics retailers, had already quietly raised the price of the same iPhone 17 to ¥142,780. That’s essentially the same number Apple’s official store is charging today, weeks later.

It’s also a reminder that not every market is moving the same direction. Around the same time Yodobashi was raising prices in Japan, retailers in Spain and Australia were actively discounting the same iPhone 17, proof there’s still savings to be found elsewhere even as costs rise in one of Apple's biggest markets.

Apple hasn't given an official reason for the Japan increase, but the timing points to currency, not chips. The yen has been sitting near a four-decade low against the dollar, forcing retailers to hike prices on imported tech to keep pace.

It's a different issue to the one behind Apple's other recent price rise. In June, Apple raised prices globally on Macs, iPads, home devices and the Vision Pro, that increase was about the ongoing memory chip shortage driving up component costs industry-wide, the same pressure that's hit Samsung's pricing this year too.

Notably, iPhones, AirPods and Apple Watch were left untouched by that price hike entirely. So the iPhones and wearables that were just slapped with a price rise in Japan are the same ones spared three weeks ago, just for a completely different reason.

So far, there’s no indication Apple plans to raise iPhone prices anywhere outside Japan, and that may not be an accident. The iPhone remains the single most important and popular product Apple makes, and the company has every incentive to protect it from price rises for as long as it possibly can, even while raising prices on nearly everything else around it.

It’s the regular buyer’s route in to Apple’s ecosystem, so I imagine Apple will want to keep it as accessible as possible. Macs, iPads and accessories can absorb a price hike without it landing badly with buyers in the same way.

With Google’s Pixel 11 going up in price, alongside Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series and almost every other major Android phone, we’ll have to see how long Apple can keep the iPhone 17 sheltered from RAM-crisis-powered price hikes.