[Nagoyankee]

Are you sure if you're ready for the long, severe winters in Sapporo or in Hokkaido in general? If that's no problem, Sapporo would be a good place to live in. It's not exactly cheap there as it's a city of a million residents. But rents can be 30-40 % lower there than in Tokyo. Other prices aren't very different, though.

One last note. You may want to know that the economy in Hokkaido and Okinawa is and will almost always be worse than in the rest of Japan. Those are the prefectures with the worst unemployment rate in the country. Both are excellent vacation destinations. No doubt about it. That's why I keep going back to Hokkaido. But to live there might not be the same.