Why are japanese music CDs so expensive?

Question:

so I was checking prices of importing a japanese music CD (marty friedman) and saw that it cost in $40USD just to buy it(rough yen translation). I kind of understand now why japanese mostly sell singles instead of albums, but why are the albums so expensive? not just imported but for ja[anese people too.

Answer:

I don't know how much CDs are there. But yen is too strong now. So everything from Japan would be expensive because of strong yen.