cost of living in japan....please help.

[franks]

konichiwa!

i need to fairly quickly get an understanding of costs of living in tokyo, could someone please give me a breakdown of living costs?

*** rent ***

i'll have to find out where i'd want to live but any indication of what your currently paying and what the neighbouring suburbs around are fetching? and a desciption of the norm...stuido? 1 bedroom? 2 bedroom?

*** food ***

do you cook yourself or do you live out of a seven-11?

*** travel ***

how much does it cost to travel to work each day and by what method?

if you'd feel more comfortable emailing me, then please do at [email protected]

any help would be greatly appreciated!

cheers,

franky

[400HP]

Transport would be similar to the way we travelled. Mainly by subway/train. But your rent and transport would relate... rent would drop possibly further away from the city (if you're working there) and transport would increase.

And Franky... its AM PM and Lawson.... not 7/11

[franks]

hahah yeah thats all understandable dude i just wanted it in big writing so i can do the maths easier subways are fine to get around in - i actually enjoy the subways

was it an AM PM around the corner from where we stayed!??!! i can't remember!

[400HP]

was it an AM PM around the corner from where we stayed!??!! i can't remember!

Yeh it was hehe. But there are so many everywhere..... remember the episode of trying to explain to the guy we wanted to buy tickets to TAS there haha.

Anyway back to your topic as I want to know this info too. Might as well add if anyone in Japan knows of any job websites that are the equivalent to www.seek.com.au etc. but that are in eigo so a stupid gaijin like me can understand??

[Evo_Lee]

there are 7/11s here , in fact they are taking over alot of the smaller convenient stores too.

Frank...

Rent should be relatively cheap as it will be subsidised by the school, how much they subsidise is entirely dependant on that school. Thus subsidy will only get the rent down so much, depending on where you live...Tokyo is quite expensive.

Transport to work should also be subsidised by the school if not completely paid by the school. Else where is completely paid by yourself.

There is alot of food places around, but generally if you want to save cook yourself. I cook during the week and only eat out during the weekends.

Heaps of threads here or on PF.

Dude, when you coming?

[DaiOni]

http://www.daijob.com/dj4/en/index.jsp

http://www.gaijinpot.com/

http://www.jobsinjapan.com/

http://www.tokyoconnections.com/

to name a few

[DaiOni]

"if you want to save cook yourself."

...though, meals can be had very cheaply - for not much more than you would pay to put it together yourself (and without the hassle of making it and cleaning it up after). You could buy a decent meal for less than 1000yen if you know where to look (well, I can, I guess tokyo could be slightly more exxy). Grocery prices gave me my biggest scare when I first arrived ("an apple... $5...? f@ck off!")

not all jobs will subsidise (anything!) but it depends who you are working for, obviously

rent WILL be expensive, any way you look at it. Apartments are generally small (I assume we are talking about a teacher's wage???) - in tokyo, many are single room.

as a comparison, a friend of mine (who lives near me), has a cousin who lives and works in tokyo - the cousin pays 5x the rent, apartment is a one room box (compared to 4), and he gets paid quite a bit less! Then again, while rural living has some great perks - it sure ain't tokyo!!!

I don't want to scare you too much - but I know of people who live in very modest tokyo accomodation and still pay 100,00+ a month - chiba is a good option, not too far out to commute, and you can find much cheaper rent than that. (you might want to do some research on 'key money' and starting up costs, too)

My advice, if it's your first time living in japan, find an employer who will place you in accomodation. (some employers have shared accomodation, which is another factor to consider)

have fun, whatever you do

[franks]

thanks for the responses guys, i will take another look at PF over the weekend actually....!

an opportunity has arisen for a job, of the exact same nature as what currently doing now, in tokyo....last night i started to get my resume together and will be applying shortly but the potential to relocate is quite good!!! (well in my eyes anyways! hahah)

what is worrying me, and i think will ultimately be a large factor in my decision to move, is how much financial reward there is after costs of living, tax, etc etc. so to give me a better understanding of what my costs are and what that financial reward is, of course considering the other spin offs of relocating to japan, will ultimately paint me a better picture of how good this opportunity really is...

the potential client will give me 1 months relocations grace, but after that it'll be up to me to sustain and find my own place...so any solid numbers would be terrific!

[DaiOni]

try this for ballpark rent prices

http://classifieds.japantoday.com/

there are too many variables to give solid numbers - it's a big city!

I wouldn't work in tokyo for under 400,000yen p/month - but it's definitely do-able on much less.

[franks]

ah this is great!

thanks dude. i will check it out later this weekend...!

yeah the offer im getting is very good, otherwise i wouldnt even consider it. of course the attraction to live in japan is also very strong, but so is family and friends in sydney and the lifestyle i have now....

i guess the choice is very individual, what made you guys go over to japan???

[DaiOni]

my wife

but hey, was worth it!

[franks]

ahhh..i bet it was

well for me it'll be totally different, but dont tell my g/f that

[akeenan]

for transport per month to work i pay around 11,000 yen oh my work pays for that but thats what it costs... (around a 21k journey)

I eat out and cook usually try to cook things myself during the week

i pay around 67 or 76 thousand yen per month for rent.. but i guarantee the other japanese residents in my building arent paying that much......

[franks]

ah this is great info thanks dude!

you reckon being a foreigner you're getting the wrong end of the stick???

yang! i knew it was a 7/11!!!

[Evo_Lee]

ah this is great!  

thanks dude. i will check it out later this weekend...!

yeah the offer im getting is very good, otherwise i wouldnt even consider it. of course the attraction to live in japan is also very strong, but so is family and friends in sydney and the lifestyle i have now....

i guess the choice is very individual, what made you guys go over to japan???

Frank, if your doing OK in Sydney then stay where you are. Coming to Japan for the fun of it isn't exactly what people should do unless they are just out of uni or need a short break...and that should be no longer then 12 months. Else you'll find yourself out of touch with your industry. I'm not sure what kind of job you have landed here but if it gives your career a boost then by all means do it.

I came when I was young, through an internal company transfer. The money was good at the time and the opportunity to work with leading edge technology is an invaluable experience. But after 5 years here, I'm wondering WTF am I still doing here. Money is no longer good for me, even though the Japanese economy is picking up companies are putting a freeze on engineers salaries. I will most likely be out of here in a couple of months. Headhunters are onto me and a good time to move as the global economy is picking up, in fact I would have left 2 years back if the global economy was better.

Important Note: No matter what, don't stay here more then 3 years unless the company is willing to pay your pension in cash. Compulsory Pension contribution is high and unless you willing to work here for 25 years you will not see more then 3 years of your pension contribution back. I'm pretty sure it's 2.4 years now in a Government ammendment earlier this year. Japan has a very high aging population (perhaps highest in the world), this is increasing quite substantially each year and every working person has to support them. So I'm already farked as it is...3 was bad and 2.4 is worst. I only found out about this pension clause after I stayed on for my 4th year (which is why most English schools will only offer a maximum of 3 years contract). Don't fall into this mistake. Australia does not have any Pension agreement with Japan at present some countries do, so you will lose out on a fair bit of money.

As for living expenses...if you can budget for your groceries, gas, electricity, water and maybe home telephone bill for about 50,000yen/month your doing OK. Rent is hard to judge but the cheaper the better it's the largest expense apart from owning and running a sports car. Mobilephone, petrol and personal spending you can control.

[DaiOni]

all good points.

"even though the Japanese economy is picking up companies are putting a freeze on engineers salaries"

hehe, the salary for my job has remained the same SINCE 1989!!! Luckily it's more than enough to live on - yet it would have been a goldmine in 89

[Evo_Lee]

Brian, I'm hoping to get the fark out of here in a couple of months. Japanese companies have weak unions so they can't bargain for much...only more holidays. As if you can find time to take any holidays, they already owe me over 40+ days. Not to mention what suits them, they will treat you like any of their Japanese engineers but I'm not covered by their union so I have to negotiate my own pay...good and bad points of course. Anyway if all goes well I'll be out of here, but not too far...working as a contractor in another part of Asia.

[franks]

thanks for the info and personal insight into this evo_lee...a few things

the job offer is extremely tasty in the financial sense, something to the tune of potentially 2 times what im on now! its just a matter of weighing up the financial reward vs the lifestyle change (i'll explain that in the next paragraph).

in terms of experience and career choice, i will be moving into an identical job description but with more opportunities for travel to europe and back. also a smaller team so the responsibility will be high....all good things, especially the o'seas exposure as it will look 'ace' on my resume and yeah, i only planned a 2 or 3 year stint....I will always call australia home mate

i'm hearing that the japanese economy is actually picking up? with how many years of stagflation/deflation you'd be thinking the only way is up from here???

in any case im applying tomorrow so hope its not too late! this could all be just a fart in the air so fingers crossed

[Evo_Lee]

thanks for the info and personal insight into this evo_lee...a few things

the job offer is extremely tasty in the financial sense, something to the tune of potentially 2 times what im on now! its just a matter of weighing up the financial reward vs the lifestyle change (i'll explain that in the next paragraph).

in terms of experience and career choice, i will be moving into an identical job description but with more opportunities for travel to europe and back. also a smaller team so the responsibility will be high....all good things, especially the o'seas exposure as it will look 'ace' on my resume and yeah, i only planned a 2 or 3 year stint....I will always call australia home mate

Hehehe...money and greed is an evil thing, I also couldn't knock back 3 times what I was getting in Aust back in '99. Now I'm worth 3 times of that as a contractor, got to love when the economy picks up. Overseas travel is good, but overseas experience is what looks the best. I've been doing alot of travelling back and forth between Japan and SE Asia. Good luck with the job also for your sake I hope it ain't a Japanese company .

[Sciby]

I don't live in Japan, but I can offer some world-wide advice...

The job has the potential to pay twice what you're on... if it sounds too good to be true, it generally isn't.

Just be careful, you don't want to be stuck over there on a workvisa with a dodgy job offer and being stuck.

Otherwise, good luck with it.

I'd love to move to Japan, but while I'm fairly employable as an IT guy, I doubt they need more of me over there. I'd just be that dumb bald gaijin who probably knows less about networks than their school children.