“Cost of living in Tokyo” has been one of the blog posts with the maximum number of comments on this site. We have tried to answer many of the queries asked by the visitors. At the same time, we admit our failure to respond in time to many of the queries. That old post about the cost of living was published in 2009. Many of the cost factors have already changed. As a compensation measure, we would like to update the cost of living in Tokyo.
Instead of going on averages, which is practically not very useful and beneficial to you, I will provide some actual figures and nearest real figures wherever applicable. Please note that these figures are for an average family, living with two children, both attending international school.
Instead of going on averages, which is practically not very useful and beneficial to you, I will provide some actual figures and nearest real figures wherever applicable. Please note that these figures are for an average family, living with two children, both attending international school.
- House rent for a 65-square-meter apartment, depending on location, is 110,000 to 185,000 (I pay around 134,000 yen per month). Many companies pay this amount for their employees by making contracts with the housing agencies. Employees do not necessarily know the exact amount in such cases.
- Educational expenses, including school fees and bus fees in an international school, are 125,000 to 300,000 (for two children). School fees depend on the school. My children are going to IISJ, Nishi-Ojima. There are many schools charging more than the amount written here.
- Extra-curricular activities such as karate, dance, music, musical instruments, etc.: 50,000 yen (For karate, we are paying 10,800 yen a month.)
- Electricity bill: 5000 yen normally, but in the winter season it goes up more than 20,000 (The bill I paid this month was 22,695 yen!). Either electricity bill or gas bill goes up during winter season depending on the type of heater.
- Car parking charges depending on where you live: 20,000 yen to 30,000 yen (I pay 26,794 yen a month for parking.)
- Other expenses related to car monthly average: 25,000 yen. This includes petrol. Paid 122 yen per liter. Petrol price is at its low these days.
- Gas bill: 5500 yen (I must admit, this is an average. The bill due for payment is 6683 yen.
- Water bill (once in two months): 10,000 yen. So, 5,000 yen in a month. (The last bill paid was 10456 yen for two months.)
- Land phone with 100 Mbps internet: 7200 yen (Again, depending on the service provider). I use KDDI’s au Hikari service for landline phone and internet. The service provider for the internet is BIGLOBE. My last bill was 7206 yen.
- Mobile phone for self, wife, and two children (kodomo phone for children): 20,000 yen. Here, the things will be different from person to person. I use the mobile phone for both private use and official use. Some of my friends carry two mobile phones, one for personal use and the other for official use, in which case it is easier to talk about the mobile bill for personal use.
- Eating out once a week: 20,000 yen. Usually when we go to chain restaurants or Indian restaurants, the bill will be around 5,000 yen per trip.
- Medical expenses (free for children under 16). Need to pay 30% for adults: 5,000 yen. Highly dependent on what kind of treatment you take. If you and your family members are free of diseases, forget this expense.
- Train commutation expenses (this includes extra travel by family members apart from using a car): approx. 16,000 yen. People usually use a Pasmo or Suica card. I need to pay nearly 600 yen for one day's travel between the office and home. There are many train ticket charging systems, by using which you can save on train expenses. I do not use the train on all the days due to personal reasons. if I use the train and buy a ticket every day or charge the card, the monthly expense would be around 13000. If I charge the card for 6 months, then this would come down to around 10,000 yen per month. Good savings, isn’t it?
- Credit card bills on average (including food items and extra purchases): 140,000 yen
- Flight charges for annual vacation (economy seat and, depending on your country, how far your country is, etc.): 35,000 yen to 45,000 yen per month.
- Unexpected expenses: 20,000 yen
- Birthday parties, get-together: 7,000 yen; again, it highly depends on what kind of life you lead, your preferences, social networks, etc.
I am not going to the extent of summing up the individual expenses, as you can pick up the expenses that you think are applicable to your lifestyle. Once again note that the above figures are for a family (two children, wife, and husband).
Tokyo is a heaven if you are an explorer, and there is no end to such explorations. I do not want to add up those exploration costs to the normal living cost, as such costs purely depend on the type of exploration you do. Depending on your job, you may have to stay with customers or clients longer in restaurants and entertainment places at night, and expenses would shoot up, but such expenses would be usually covered by companies.
You might have some idea about the kind of expenses in Tokyo or in Japan in general. Please use the “Comment box” below to let me know what you think.
- Educational expenses, including school fees and bus fees in an international school, are 125,000 to 300,000 (for two children). School fees depend on the school. My children are going to IISJ, Nishi-Ojima. There are many schools charging more than the amount written here.
- Extra-curricular activities such as karate, dance, music, musical instruments, etc.: 50,000 yen (For karate, we are paying 10,800 yen a month.)
- Electricity bill: 5000 yen normally, but in the winter season it goes up more than 20,000 (The bill I paid this month was 22,695 yen!). Either electricity bill or gas bill goes up during winter season depending on the type of heater.
- Car parking charges depending on where you live: 20,000 yen to 30,000 yen (I pay 26,794 yen a month for parking.)
- Other expenses related to car monthly average: 25,000 yen. This includes petrol. Paid 122 yen per liter. Petrol price is at its low these days.
- Gas bill: 5500 yen (I must admit, this is an average. The bill due for payment is 6683 yen.
- Water bill (once in two months): 10,000 yen. So, 5,000 yen in a month. (The last bill paid was 10456 yen for two months.)
- Land phone with 100 Mbps internet: 7200 yen (Again, depending on the service provider). I use KDDI’s au Hikari service for landline phone and internet. The service provider for the internet is BIGLOBE. My last bill was 7206 yen.
- Mobile phone for self, wife, and two children (kodomo phone for children): 20,000 yen. Here, the things will be different from person to person. I use the mobile phone for both private use and official use. Some of my friends carry two mobile phones, one for personal use and the other for official use, in which case it is easier to talk about the mobile bill for personal use.
- Eating out once a week: 20,000 yen. Usually when we go to chain restaurants or Indian restaurants, the bill will be around 5,000 yen per trip.
- Medical expenses (free for children under 16). Need to pay 30% for adults: 5,000 yen. Highly dependent on what kind of treatment you take. If you and your family members are free of diseases, forget this expense.
- Train commutation expenses (this includes extra travel by family members apart from using a car): approx. 16,000 yen. People usually use a Pasmo or Suica card. I need to pay nearly 600 yen for one day's travel between the office and home. There are many train ticket charging systems, by using which you can save on train expenses. I do not use the train on all the days due to personal reasons. if I use the train and buy a ticket every day or charge the card, the monthly expense would be around 13000. If I charge the card for 6 months, then this would come down to around 10,000 yen per month. Good savings, isn’t it?
- Credit card bills on average (including food items and extra purchases): 140,000 yen
- Flight charges for annual vacation (economy seat and, depending on your country, how far your country is, etc.): 35,000 yen to 45,000 yen per month.
- Unexpected expenses: 20,000 yen
- Birthday parties, get-together: 7,000 yen; again, it highly depends on what kind of life you lead, your preferences, social networks, etc.
I am not going to the extent of summing up the individual expenses, as you can pick up the expenses that you think are applicable to your lifestyle. Once again note that the above figures are for a family (two children, wife, and husband).
Tokyo is a heaven if you are an explorer, and there is no end to such explorations. I do not want to add up those exploration costs to the normal living cost, as such costs purely depend on the type of exploration you do. Depending on your job, you may have to stay with customers or clients longer in restaurants and entertainment places at night, and expenses would shoot up, but such expenses would be usually covered by companies.
You might have some idea about the kind of expenses in Tokyo or in Japan in general. Please use the “Comment box” below to let me know what you think.
