Updated Cost of Living for a Family in Tokyo, Japan

“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.

- 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.

Address Change and Contract Termination with Electric Company Before Moving

Call and Inform the Electricity provider well in advance before you move.

One of the things that we need to do in priority while shifting home or moving permanently out of Japan is to call and inform the electricity service provider. I made a telephone call to the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) today and informed them about the scheduled moving plan.

I was a bit reluctant to talk in Japanese at first, but the circumstances forced to do so. The moving date is just 2 weeks ahead and can not make any more delay. The phone call went to an electronic receptionist, which started instructing in Japanese to select the desired service. This is a bit cumbersome for foreigners in Japan. I had to repeat the process twice in order to confirm that there was an option for "Hikkoshi". Hikkoshi, 引越しmeans Moving.

After selecting proper numbers, finally the call reached to a live person. I requested the lady at the other end to speak slowly so that I can manage the conversation in Japanese. She asked whether I am the applicant himself or a proxy. I conveyed my requirements and she confirmed my name, address, mobile number and reason for moving. Since it was moving to another apartment, she asked to provide the new address and confirmed that I would use the same mobile number even after moving. (Some people change their mobile number).

When I told the dates of moving in to the new apartment and vacating the current apartment, she asked the date from when the electric connection is required. While vacating the current apartment, all we need to do is switch off the breaker.

Understanding the electronic receptionist's instruction in Japanese and its meaning in English will help you to select proper service.

Remind Yourself Why You were Angry Before You Get Carried Away by it

Japanese economy continued to shrink for the subsequent quarter. For the quarter ended in December 2015, a -0.4% growth was reported. As the news came out, financial analysts and opponents of Abenomics started to sense the end of Government's financial policies. Government led by Prime Minister Abe has been trying to bring inflation to the system by adopting several manipulations that include the latest negative interest rate policy.

While my host country is passing through an economic crisis (at least technically), my mother country is passing through political turmoil. Indian democratic system (in the constitutional sense) is passing through a testing time. It is not because of the present government ruling at the center. This is just a course that every nation has to pass through. The majority of Indian society at the time of independence from British have been just following the democratic principles bestowed on them by their foreign masters. 

Sixty eight years after constitutional independence, Indian democratic system (at least in the constitutional sense) is passing through a testing time. It is not because of the present government ruling at the center. This is just a course that every nation has to pass through. The majority of Indian society at the time of independence from British have been just following the democratic principles bestowed on them by their foreign masters. 68 years after constitutional independence, majority of our citizens are not aware of the difference between foreign and their new local masters.

Feudal system still exists in many parts of our India. For us, the newly bestowed freedom has been like a toy in the hands of monkeys. If we do an introspection, we can sincerely say that a vast majority of our population is not matured to observe self-discipline or self-governance. They do not need the kind of freedom that constitution endows them when they find joy in the captivity: the captivity of superstition, the captivity of tribal rituals, the captivity of reinforced beliefs and captivity of caste system. An average Indian even in this age is happy to be identified as Brahmin, Shudra, Kshatriya or Vaishya rather than just a human being. A majority of us, Indians are happy to get ruled by others. This is where the progressive movements in India failed. The irony of progressive movements in India is that their leaders put their legs in Russia, Cuba or China to define problems of Indian society. They had no faith in Indian people, rather they were in an illusion with the peasant revolutions that happened in European countries centuries ago.

Civilizations in western world had passed through regimes ruled by majority, where interests of minorities and opponents were dealt with iron fist. They had already passed through that phase years ago. We are just passing through it and for some other civilizations, it may take some more years. Proponents of progressive ideas need to concentrate on issues related to caste system, discrimination based on gender, superstitions, to mention a few of the social evils prevalent in Indian society rather than targeting political leadership, for bringing foreign investments to the country.

Coming back to the reality, for many Indians living in developed countries, the news from their homeland is disgusting (at a time when we need to concentrate on domestic production and development, the political energy is diverted towards conflicts). Then, are these conflicts purposely created? Whose interest is it to create anarchy in India? Whose interest is it to create an emergency like situation in India? Readers from India know the answers to these questions.

Freedom is not a license to utter rubbish. Neither it should be a license to arm against your country nor a license to silence your opponents. There is an upsurge of policing by the supporters of the ruling party workers all over the country. This could be attributed to the sudden excitement of the majority of seats won by the party. Electing a party with majority does not automatically empower the party to do all kind of controlling activities in the society. Their excited activities helped only to create an image of terrorism, which in the hands of political opponents has become a tool now.

The whole idea of power shift has forgotten now. The man who brought the power shift in Indian political horizon has been subsided by some of his so called ignorant supporters. In fact, they are tarnishing his image by creating opportunities enough to sink the whole idea of development in the country. Development in every sphere of life is what India needs to survive and come up as a successful society. A man alone at the political leadership is not enough to bring such a big change.

Then again, freedom of speech is not your right to invite your enemies to destroy your home. Boys, grow up and learn first how to protect your feet, then you can think of energizing and glorifying our enemies. Your enmity towards the ruling communal party and its ideologies should not convert in to hatred towards your mother country. You need to remind yourself why you were angry, before being carried away by that devilish emotion.

Is Sleeping at the Office Legally Allowed in Japan?

Japan is known to many foreigners as a country with workaholic people who stay at the office until late at night and then rush to the office the next day early in the morning. Government offices are well-disciplined and punctual in Japan. Though the official time starts at 8:30 am at many of the ward offices, even if you go at 8 am, you can get your work done! For this reason, many times I could reach the office in time (by 9 am) after finishing the work at the ward office. Government employees too are addicted to work in Japan, a thing which you may never see in other countries.

People searching for jobs in Japan would necessarily check online about the working culture of Japanese people. Most foreigners change their attitude and life to accept the difference in culture and stay longer at the office. Medical doctors recommend 8 hours of sleep for an average adult. For a healthy adult in the age group of 26 to 64, the National Sleep Foundation experts recommend 7 to 9 hours of sleep every day. Considering that the working people comprise that above age group, the recommended sleeping time is 7 to 9 hours a day. Practically, most of us do not follow these guidelines, including me. I used to sleep around 6 hours a day during weekdays and around 8 hours on weekends.

If we work until late at night and rush to the office in the early morning, definitely there is a question: When do they sleep, and how many hours do they sleep, or possibly where do they sleep? Overwork produces stress and related mental problems. Here, one thing we need to understand is that all Japanese people do not stay at the office for long hours. There is a certain percentage of salarymen who are addicted to overwork or overtime payment.

In an attempt to curb the workaholic addictions, the government and corporate entities have implemented many measures. Overworking is discouraged in many offices now. It seems Toyota started a campaign called “No Zangyo Day,” meaning “No Overtime Day” once a week. Many companies followed suit by selecting their convenient day to discourage employees from staying at the office after normal working hours.

If somebody stays longer at the office, it is quite natural to get fatigued, and if continued for weeks, the body will find its own ways to relax. That includes sleeping at the office during office hours or inside the train/bus while commuting. Then, sleeping at the office during office hours kills the whole purpose of overwork! Sleeping at the office is not rare in many of the Japanese offices, especially the 2 to 3 hours after lunch.

Chances to slip into a catnap are high if we are tired of overwork. And this is what happens in most of the cases. Those who were around and active in the office would empathize with the situation and pretend as if they didn’t see anything abnormal. The immediate superior, known as Joushi (上司), usually does not take such catnaps seriously until it starts affecting the performance of that employee. Catnaps at a Japanese office are not legally allowed, but nobody takes them seriously.

Sleep and catnap are synonyms, but I prefer to use the word "catnap." Catnap is a kind of periodic rest, which in most of the type of office work does not affect the output seriously. It, of course, has many serious moral concerns, such as is it OK to sleep while we claim the benefits of our work, isn’t it a kind of laziness, etc. Taking a catnap while doing office work is less harmful and morally justifiable than taking a sleep while attending an important meeting. The speaker may be explaining important steps to revive the company or system. There too we can see some people go for a crazy catnap.

What If I Were A Muslim?

A memory from 2013 recently resurfaced in my mind, one that still makes me pause and reflect on human behavior. I was in transit at Hong Kong airport, coming from Dubai with Tokyo as my final destination. The airport was undergoing renovations, and I felt a bit disoriented while navigating the corridors toward my gate.

As I walked, a woman in a professional suit gently called me over from a corner, joined shortly by a man. It quickly became clear—they were immigration officers on special duty. I prepared myself for questions, as I had faced similar encounters many times before.

The exchange went something like this:

• Woman: Where are you from?

• Me: India

• Woman: No, I mean where you are coming from now?

• Me: Dubai, for a business meeting

• Man: Where are you going?

• Me: Tokyo

• Woman: Do you live in Japan?

• Me: Yes

• Man: Where is your family?

• Me: They are also in Japan

• Man: Do you have a Japanese identity card?

• Me: Yes (handed over my Alien Registration Card)

• Man: Please show your passport.

• Man: What is your name?

• Me: Jayaprakash (full name as in passport)

• Man (curiously): So, you are not a Muslim?

• Me: No

After this, he handed back my passport with a smile and wished me a pleasant journey. Throughout the encounter, both officers were polite, gentle, and occasionally smiled to ease the situation. I remained calm, careful not to escalate or show frustration—it’s part of their job, after all.

But as I walked to my gate, a thought struck me: what would have happened if I were Muslim? I didn’t dwell on it long; speculation rarely ends well. Yet, the question lingered.

This memory resurfaced because of a story from an Egyptian friend. He is a general manager of a U.S.-based company in Japan and travels frequently to the U.S. Every time he lands, he is sent to a separate room for questioning. The same officer handles him each time, recognizing him well—but there is no concession. The reason, he believes, is that his name signals a certain religious identity.

These incidents illustrate something subtle but powerful: bias exists everywhere. It might be based on religion, nationality, skin color, or other markers. Sometimes it’s unconscious, sometimes institutional. Denying it is easy and common—but acknowledgment is far more constructive than denial or dismissal.

Bias is part of human nature. What matters is how we recognize it, reflect on it, and ensure it doesn’t dictate our actions or cloud our judgment.