Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world. The recent statistics shows that capital of Japan, Tokyo is the most expensive place in the world to live. Japan is the second strongest economy in the world, but the most expensive.
One reason for this high expense is the highest living standards by its citizens. The quality of life is also high in Tokyo. Everything contributes to the expenses.
From the last one year living experience in Japan, let me brief the costs of living in Tokyo. The apartment rent per month is 115,000 Japanese yen. For Yahoo BB broadband internet connection with a land phone the bill be around 6,400 Japanese yen. It is quite reasonable considering the quality of service Yahoo BB offers and the advantages of having a landline telephone from Yahoo BB in combination with Apa Kabar international calling card.
The monthly electricity bill will be around 6000 Japanese yen. I paid the last water bill approximately 3600 Japanese yen for two months. So, monthly 1800 Yen is nominal for a single man. The gas bill will be around 1600 Yen, because I don’t cook at home. This gas consumption is for heating the water for making coffee and water heating for bathing. The NHK television bill will be 1390 Yen per month. Softbank mobile phone charges for a month is around 2000 Yen. This includes the extra calls I make to friends within Japan. For making international calls I use Apa kabar card which costs 2400 Yen. I have to buy at least 3 Apa Kabar cards in a month, thus this amounts to 7200 Yen per month.
Daily commutation charges by train to office and back will be 580 Yen per day. So accumulated for a month and also including the extra travels I make to visit friends and for purchase will total to 20,000 Yen. This kind of expense depends on the place where we live. For others, this amount may be less or high.
For food and snacks monthly approximate expense for a single head will vary from 45000 to 60,000. If I go for eating out together with other friends once in a week, this amount will go further high.
Hair dressing charges are quite noticeable in Japan. My hair dresser charges me with a small bill of 3,000 Yen. This is where I got astonished with the living expenses in Tokyo. Every month I pay 3,000 Yen for hair cutting. I am not going for any beautification of my hair! In my country, for this amount of money, even if I go for a medium luxury hair saloon, I can have my hair cut for full two years! Here in Tokyo, we are not paying for the actual work he does rather we pay the hair dresser to live in Tokyo. He also have to live in Tokyo in order to render his service to us!
The clothing and physical fitness charges will vary according to the individual and I don’t want to put any amount, but it won’t be less than 10,000 Yen if we take the average per month.
Then there are vacation expenses for a foreigner. Entertainment expenses another category. Today I went to see a movie. One movie ticket costs 1800 Yen.
Since I have insurance, I have to pay some 30% of the expenses. Monthly medical expenses are approximately 5000 Yen.
Living with family and kids is quite highly expensive in Japan. The lowest international school fee won’t be less than 60,000 Yen per month for one kid. The school bus expense may vary from 20,000 Yen and more. Then comes the other education expenses separately.
All the above mentioned expenses are purely from my own experience and have nothing to do with a national average figure. I don’t want to do a totaling of all the expenses and state a particular amount as the monthly expenses. Some companies will take care of some type of expenses. Again that depends on the individuals agreement with the company and company's commitment to the employees. Therefore Just I have given the breakups of living expenses in Tokyo. There are other types of expenses, which I might have missed out. I will update once I remember those expenses.
One reason for this high expense is the highest living standards by its citizens. The quality of life is also high in Tokyo. Everything contributes to the expenses.
From the last one year living experience in Japan, let me brief the costs of living in Tokyo. The apartment rent per month is 115,000 Japanese yen. For Yahoo BB broadband internet connection with a land phone the bill be around 6,400 Japanese yen. It is quite reasonable considering the quality of service Yahoo BB offers and the advantages of having a landline telephone from Yahoo BB in combination with Apa Kabar international calling card.
The monthly electricity bill will be around 6000 Japanese yen. I paid the last water bill approximately 3600 Japanese yen for two months. So, monthly 1800 Yen is nominal for a single man. The gas bill will be around 1600 Yen, because I don’t cook at home. This gas consumption is for heating the water for making coffee and water heating for bathing. The NHK television bill will be 1390 Yen per month. Softbank mobile phone charges for a month is around 2000 Yen. This includes the extra calls I make to friends within Japan. For making international calls I use Apa kabar card which costs 2400 Yen. I have to buy at least 3 Apa Kabar cards in a month, thus this amounts to 7200 Yen per month.
Daily commutation charges by train to office and back will be 580 Yen per day. So accumulated for a month and also including the extra travels I make to visit friends and for purchase will total to 20,000 Yen. This kind of expense depends on the place where we live. For others, this amount may be less or high.
For food and snacks monthly approximate expense for a single head will vary from 45000 to 60,000. If I go for eating out together with other friends once in a week, this amount will go further high.
Hair dressing charges are quite noticeable in Japan. My hair dresser charges me with a small bill of 3,000 Yen. This is where I got astonished with the living expenses in Tokyo. Every month I pay 3,000 Yen for hair cutting. I am not going for any beautification of my hair! In my country, for this amount of money, even if I go for a medium luxury hair saloon, I can have my hair cut for full two years! Here in Tokyo, we are not paying for the actual work he does rather we pay the hair dresser to live in Tokyo. He also have to live in Tokyo in order to render his service to us!
The clothing and physical fitness charges will vary according to the individual and I don’t want to put any amount, but it won’t be less than 10,000 Yen if we take the average per month.
Then there are vacation expenses for a foreigner. Entertainment expenses another category. Today I went to see a movie. One movie ticket costs 1800 Yen.
Since I have insurance, I have to pay some 30% of the expenses. Monthly medical expenses are approximately 5000 Yen.
Living with family and kids is quite highly expensive in Japan. The lowest international school fee won’t be less than 60,000 Yen per month for one kid. The school bus expense may vary from 20,000 Yen and more. Then comes the other education expenses separately.
All the above mentioned expenses are purely from my own experience and have nothing to do with a national average figure. I don’t want to do a totaling of all the expenses and state a particular amount as the monthly expenses. Some companies will take care of some type of expenses. Again that depends on the individuals agreement with the company and company's commitment to the employees. Therefore Just I have given the breakups of living expenses in Tokyo. There are other types of expenses, which I might have missed out. I will update once I remember those expenses.
15 comments:
Wow, you are posting almost every day! That is great.
The cost for cutting hair for a woman (just cutting) seems to be same everywhere in Japan. I have lived in Tokyo, Tsukuba, and now Akita, and it is somewhere around 4500-5000 Yen. The cost of living is not that high in Akita, but apparently there is no significant difference in the cost of hair-cutting as compared to Tokyo. Your post really made me think about this. Thanks.
Konichiwa, Jayaprakash san!
But seriously, I am from Kerala, and have lived in the United States for 30 years.
Re.phone call costs.. gave you tried any of the Internet based phone services? Vonage, Skype? There is one called Magic Jack, a small attachment( you can buy at places such as Radio Shack, other electronics stores)that allows you to make calls over the internet at basically local rates.
I recall staying for a few months in Osaka, Nagoya and Washimiya, in the mid 90's when the Yen was very strong..as much as 80 yen to a US $.. and things were awfully expensive.
I also recall it was difficult to get honest feedback from my customers, in the beginning, but once you break down a few walls, it did not seem to be a issue. I recall asking my teams there to give me feedback in ' Honne', not 'Tatemae' .. and they immediately responded!
Thanks Manisha-san and Boston-san for your valuable inputs.
To Manisha-san: There are hair dressing saloons charging 1000 Yen also in Tokyo. They are the cheapest ones. The problem is they are very fast and many times we won't look like earlier once we come out! That may be my fear on the cheaper (!) services.
3000 Yen is reasonaby justified in Tokyo. My hair dresser Takagawa-san is very friendly to me and we will have chat during the process. Me with broken Japanese could communicate with him. That makes me confident in him that he won't make my hair like iron dust attracted to the magnet!
To Boston-san: Konnichiwa! Thanks for your suggestions. I will try as you told. I use Apa kabar card which gives me 12 hours 13 minutes calling time to India for 2400 Yen. This means around 3.27 Yen per minute. So far I know, this damn cheap. The card is easily available near to the Namaste foods shop in Higashi Ojima.
Thanks JayaPrakash for such a detail description of monthly expenses.
I am an Engineer from India, and got an offer from a Japanese company. If would be a great help if you can provide/post a rough of initial setup cost for a new family (no child).
BTW what my office would be in Tokyo considering that what should be a decent salary.
Hi Hitesh,
Congrats for your new assignment with a Japanese company. The salary structure in a Japanese company will be based on the Japanese standards of age and qualification based. But there are multinational companies from USA, Europe and even India (mainly software), who offers pretty much higher salary than Japanese companies. I don't know what is your age; the salary level in a Japanese company depends on the age. A 35-38years age group may earn a gross salary of something in between 700,000 to 800,000 JPY per month, if my experience is correct. I am not sure of this amount with multinational companies. I heard it is a bit higher than 1 million JPY per month.
If you live without children, a family expense of 150,000 JPY per month should be OK for you, provided your commutation expenses, 80% of the house rent, 70% of health insurance (guaranteed if you live in Japan) etc are covered by the company). The bonus usually 3 to 4 months of salary per annum will be distributed in two instalments on June and December. That bonus will be an extra savings for many foreigners and is a good amount.
Since I live with family from April onwards, I will update this blog with the new expenses and sources for Indian food items in Tokyo.
Please ask if you have any doubts.
Thanks JayaPrakash for such quick reply.
Actually its a long term assignment company will not be providing me any accommodation or benefit related to it. :(
I am under 30.
Any rough estimates abt the amount needed for the initial setup...
like security deposit (for house), furniture, and other cost....
Thanks...
Hi Hitesh,
House rent in Tokyo is quite high compared to other major cities. In my case, I live in Higashi Ojima, which is approximately 25 minutes travel time from my office by trains. Indian community is considerable at places like Higashi Ojima, Nishi Kasai etc. Rent for my home is 115,000 JPY per month. As I told before, I live with my family and mother (Interestingly 'mother is not considered as part of family' in Japan!!).
The house rent for bachelor accommodation will be less than 100,000 JPY in Tokyo. If you opt to live a little away, the rent will be less. For bachelors who shares the accommodation for initial days of setup in Japan, there are agencies who help to get shared accommodation. My bachelor friends who rented a single room with all other facilities like kitchen, bathroom, toilet individually pays something around75,000 to 90,000 JPY near Tokyo. There are shared accommodation available for 30,000 to 60,000 JPY per month. Check out for all the facilities they provide before you decide to move in.
Since the company did enter into contract with the property dealer for renting the home for me, I am not sure how much they paid to the agent and owner. Information from other friends say the security deposit including advance rent for the first month will be 2 or 3 months rent, The key money will be 1-2 months rent and the Agents commission will be 1 month's rent.
Please tell your employer to help in arranging for the accommodation as for many foreigners without knowledge of Japanese language it will be a nightmare to deal with house owner.
There are some useful tips at this site. http://www.paperlantern.net/acomo/apart.html
Thanks Jayaprakash for your help. We will meet some time down the line ... :)
Keep blogging :)
Hi Jayaprakash,
I´m working in a lifestyle magazine, and for October issue I want to write about the cost of living in Tokyo. So I need some more informations from you. Do you mind? Can I reach you personally via email? You can confirm directly to my email address k_marisa_y@yahoo.com
Thanks so much before.
Hi Marisa,
As assured, I will be providing you enough information on the cost of living in Tokyo. It may take one or two days to compile the information, but you will receive it.
Okay, thanks so much for the effort. I'll be waiting.
As we are going through your blog we came to know that the tokyo is very expensive. But as compare to the Indian rs. how the money will be saved? This we are written because we planned to come there for teaching Indian classical vocal and instrumental music and also drama with yoga. The age group is in btn 35 to 45yrs. So what are the salaries the school pay to the teacher approximately to mate these expences and how we can save the money? Dhanashree Sunil Ashtekar from Mumbai.
Hi Jayaprakash,
You have provided a handful of information on the living expenses in Tokyo. I know this is one side of Tokyo only. There might be other areas of expenses, which you might not have experienced. Ofcourse, over a period of one and half you might not have gone through all kind of expenses. Since I have lived there for almost twelve years and now back to US, I know what you have written is true information.
The salary you get also in tune with the expenses, I am sure!!!!!!!
Good luck to your blog postings.
Hello Jayasan,
Your blog is great information source for foreigners living in Japan. I see you give more information through your blog and try to solve their specific doubts also. It is a good help for them. Even for Japanese people, Tokyo is expensive.
But there are many options to buy things at lower cost here in Tokyo also. Probably after learning Japanese language and start talking in Japanese, you can find such cheaper sources of buying things in Japan.
Thanks for sharing
If Tokyo is this much expensive how people live there? May be the salary is also much higher. so the total living standard must be higher. Life of a foreigner in Tokyo must be an enjoying one then!
If you get more salary, there will be equal cost of living also in Tokyo. That is quite natural. Compared to other neighboring countries, Japan economy is much much stronger and higher. Cost of living in Tokyo is proportional to the salary people draw from the companies.
So, thinking from this point of view I don't think Tokyo is expensive.
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