House rent, electric bills, food, i spent 2 weeks there and we spent over 2 mill yen doing not much. and sorry i take that back 150,000 could pay of your rent and bills, food for a month i guess.. +100,000 free cash? But dont ask me.. i havent been in Japan longterm.. yet

I re-evaluated it into swedish currency, and 150 000 yen aint much =P
it's easy to get fooled by the high numbers. I i cant understand how the worlds second richest country can have such a poor currency, whats the reason ? :confused:

You also have to remember that spending two weeks(aka, visiting japan) would be a lot more expensive than actually living there. Just like visiting america would. Because, you don't have stoves in hotels, for one. So, eating out is almost a necesity. Also, the hotels themselves wouldn't be cheap. Also, a lot of people I've known to go to japan end up buying a ton of stuff. I mean, they go CRAZY! bringing back tons of manga, video games, and a bunch of other assorted trinkets. It's no wonder why so many people think it's SO expensive in japan.
Another thing about japan people think is expensive is food costs. While that may be true, generally japan eats much less than western folk do. Also, if you live in japan, you might want to just eat the nations food. Because other foods for foreigners, (or so I've heard) tend to cost a lot more than the country's own food.
So, learn to eat with a japanese diet, actually live there, and you should be fine.

Let me sum it up as quick as I can for you. Japan's economy basically had a blow out a few years back because of rapid deflation. From what I understand, the economy relied too heavily on exports and didn't have a lot of imports coming in or something. For the past ten years Japan has been in recovery mode which means setting the lending rate low (currently .25 percent which is up from 0!) to spur investment.

Why is it so low right now? The Bank of Japan and the government does not think the economy is recovering as fast as previously thought. One reason, Japanese do not spend a lot of money say like Americans. Another reason it is low is because they are fairly uncertain about their economic future so all other countries reflect this by having the same outlook. They have a low birth rate with high numbers of retirees so everyone looks at this and thinks who is going to do the work to pay for the social security/pension system. All this worry about the economy has a cyclical effect in that Japanese are worried about their future economy and therefore don't marry and have kids because they are worried about their kids economic future and on top of that are still saving a lot of money because they are worried about retirement when they get old.

The overall theme behind this whole story is that the economy is a mess, everyone is confused and worried and kind of stuck at a crossroads of sorts wondering which way to go. The result is overseas investors look at Japan and say one month, "Oh I think they're coming back strong." The yen rises. Then a few months later Japan starts going, "The birth rate is too low, there isn't enough consumer spending, the rates have to remain low because we are not recovering strong enough." Then the yen plummets. Which is where we are now.

About half way through the year it will probably strengthen if we get good news from the BOJ.

I think he meant more as to why the Japanese currency is such a small unit...

Japan only has one way of counting money - via yen. The US has dollars and such to reduce the numbers down from what they`d be in cents, but Japan keeps it at the lowest level. Sort of like if the US decided to get rid of the dollar system and count everything by cents - it would look very similar.

Actually I did not know about this information till I read your post. ;)
guess It was my luck day :D

jasonbvr, you seem to know alot :D the task is simple, bang and be happy ?

nyororin, no, he pretty much explained everything i wanted to know.

A bit of a side note, Japan is not the second richest country in the world. They have the second largest economy by GDP. The richest measured by per capita are 1. Luxembourg 2. Norway 3. USA, Japan is 14th.

They do still hold the treasured number one spot for most expensive country to live in as far as I know.

And Nyororin makes a good point in noting that one yen is a cent. Some ALT's I know like to call them yennies like pennies in the States. You can literally snap a yen in half with your fingers and I was told that they even float in water.

yeah but i was meaning economy ^^
whats so expensive in japan ? except things like marriages and funerals..

Sorry if I came off as a bit condescending. I just wanted to share the info.

Owning and driving a car is quite expensive. Then they have charges like how NHK broadcasting comes to your door and collects a tax if you own a TV. Traveling inside Japan can be pricey when you are trying to get relatively far from home such as round trip 100 USD for me to get from Ota in Gunma to the other side of Nagano.

The toughest expense though is beer. Two dollar beer is more depressing than, well I don't know anything even remotely as depressing.

Cheap stuff, cigarettes, rice, instant ramen, convenient store food and everything in the amazingly awesome one hundred yen stores.

Oh and let's not forget the expenses incurred due to cultural norms like giving money when a coworker is sick and omiyage which I know I didn't spell right. This is when you bring back souvenirs for like everyone you know when you go somewhere.

Then say you bring candy for your students but not for the teachers they get all secretly pissed even though you brought them high dollar chocolates just two months before. I had ten pounds of candy in my bag. How can I bring something for everyone when I have like four hundred students? Geez, I thought I was working with adults.

Oh and unlike a lot of countries, when you buy in bulk you usually get a discount. Japan can be fairly mixed in this regard. Sometimes you do sometimes you don't. Sometimes you may find a drink machine with a small soda and a larger soda for the exact same price. Americans look at this and say, "Who would buy the small when the large is the same price?" Answer, a Japanese person would say because it is wasteful to buy all that soda when I only want a small.

It's complicated. It's like a school with separate heaters in each room versus central heating and insulated walls. We, foreigners, get so confused by some of these things. You just have to accept it though. Eventually you get so used to it, you will will wonder why the convenient store employee does not offer to put your one can of beer in a bag. They always give you a bag, even if you are just going to throw it in the trash when you walk outside.