How much approximately
 

Hey folks,

I was wondering, approximately how much yens per month, does one need in order to lead a normal life in Japan (including paying his rent, utility bills,commuting, food, clothing and personal stuff) ? Is sth like 100,000 enough?

I think it would depend in which city you live. From what I've read, it costs a lot more to live Tokyo and Osaka than some of the other cities.

Although I've never been mayself, considering how much you'd need to pay for, I'd say about 250,000 would be comfortable enough.

200,000 to survive, 250,000 to actually be able to do something. Your money will go fast over here if you want to eat well and travel a lot.

Depending on what you are doing, I`d say you can get by with only about 120,000/month - for two people.

We`ve been there, done that, and were quite happy and comfortable at the time. (Although I can`t say I`d choose to do it again.)

48,000 for rent
12,000 for utilities
20,000 for food
20,000 for train passes

and... whatever was leftover was spending money. There were months in which we only used 10,000 for food, and months when we went way over. But it was more than enough to survive and be quite content.

Now, if you want to live in a huge apartment, eat out every night, own a new car, buy lots of cool stuff, etc. You`ll probably need more than 300,000 a month.

I really don't see how you pull that off Nyororin and reading your account makes me wonder where all my money goes other than snowboarding and beer. I can't even afford beer anymore either, but I do send a lot home to pay for student loans.

I am beginning to understand just how spoiled English teachers are in Japan!

Anyways, I have a question. Does the Suica cards save people money or do they simply allow faster in and out of stations since you don't stop every time to buy your tickets?

Here in Nagoya, we have yurika, which are like the same thing... And yes, they are a bit cheaper. I think a single 5000yen card gives you 5600 yen worth of travel? If you go around a lot, it can add up. But the main thing is convenience.

In our case, we had actual teikiken, which are the flat fee for 3 or 6 months. You pay the fee and can basically ride the train as much as you like between the two stations on the card. It can SERIOUSLY save you money if you travel regularly between the same two stations (like to work, or school and then back home). For example, if you do a roundtrip everyday, you`ll end up paying less than half price.

When we were living on 120,000/month, it was when my husband was in school. His parents paid for the schooling. His part time job earned between 60,000 and 80,000 a month and he received a 50,000 "allowance" from his parents, with which we paid the rent. (This was before we were married and just after, so I didn`t have a job yet.)

And yes, it was completely possible. I don`t know what it is about us, but we seem to manage to do an incredible amount with our money.

I mean, we were able to buy a 290,000,000yen condo and a brand new car (2,500,000yen), and continue paying for it on a salary that averages around 280,000/month. All while buying all sorts of stuff, traveling all over the place, and seriously enjoying our lives.

Where everyone else`s money is going is a complete and total mystery to me.

So, it is possible to live off of 120k yen then? Interesting. though, my only concern is, with minimum wage pay,(what is it) how much can you expect to pull off monthly? (with a full time job) Of course, I don't plan on working minimum wage, I just like to prepare for the worst. Also, how hard is it for a gaijin to find a job? Thanks dearly for the help.

Americans need a bachelors degree to get the work visa. After that it is fairly easy.

Does this visa allow for permanent stay in the country? or is there more to it...

I think a visa allows for work, but if you want to stay permanently, you have to get some other kind of citizenship.
But, that might just be this country.

let's say that you live in a one room appartment and eat only food like cup ramen and such, no car in the beginning, how much would you need ?

90,000 yen a month may be doable. 40-50,000 rent, 15-20,000 utilities, food with what's left.

100,000 lets see:

if your renting: 30,000 - ( min) for room
if you ride a train everyday , just buy a monthly pass its cheaper and you can use it in between stations , but most of the time this is company provided .
but for non-work related train: get the "kaisuu" ticket, its cheaper, like if you buy the 1000yen pre-paid you have a 200yen extra

for food , if you cook you can really save, on working days I get only to spend 2000yen on food, cause I cook my food.

then theres fone and internet which I budget around 10,000 per month.
then water and electricity usually not more than 5000yen

alone I think I can live comfortably.. just have to know to budget your money well and know where to buy food and clothes.

but that also depends upon the lifestyle that you have/want.

oh by the way, this is Osaka way of budgeting :D

You have to live in Japan for at least 10year to get a permanent residency.
The maximum visa(working) that you can get is 3 years. But recently, they only release working visa for one year then if get lucky when you renew they will give a 3 years working visa.

Even people married to a japanese cannot be automatically get a permanent residency until they gave birth to a child.

No, you can. You just have to have been married for over 5 years (in or out of Japan.)

So, before you actually get citizenship, you must live there for at least ten years, or be married for 5.

Do employment visas allow you to live in japan(meaning, rent an appartment or something) And, is it true if you leave the country and re-enter, your visa get's renewed? Meaning, you could just fly out for say, a convenient family trip, and fly back and be able to stay there for another however long?

oops sorry.. I mean if less married less than what was required of applying a residency permit :) sorry about that... thanks for the correction Nyororin

@NekoChan
yes employment visa allows all that. I don't think visa work that way. For working visa, if you live the country without applying for a re-entry permit, the remaining terms of your visa will become void as soon as you live. But with a re-entry permit it stays valid as long as you came back within the span of time the re-entry permit allows. If not then you need to apply a new visa to enter the country again.

Basically, you don't need to go back to your specific country to renew your visa. Just go to the immigration bureau , and renew. Re-entry permit can also be applied together with your visa and its validity is the same as your visa. So if your visa is one year then your re-entry permit is also one year.

Single re-entry permit is 3000yen and multiple is 6000yen. It practical to apply for a multiple cause its cheaper, that it if you plan to travel a lot within the span of your visa.

There are two different types of re-entry permits. The single use type, and the multiple use type. The single one ends after (obviously) a single use. The multiple use one only lasts a year, no matter what type of visa you have. (A 3 year visa? Permanent residency? Oh well. You`ll need a new one every year.)
I have never had a multiple entry one. I`ve never left the country 3 or more times in a single year. And if you don`t, then it`s a total waste of money. Twice, and you`d might as well have gotten the single use one, as it costs the same anyway.
Now, if the multiple entry lasted the entire length of a visa... ie. forever with the permanent residency one, etc.... That would be nice. But it doesn`t.

I also want to correct what I said about the permanent residency. You can technically get it if you`ve lived in Japan continuously for 5 of more years. *Technically*, as in that`s what you need for the application. That doesn`t mean they`ll grant it to you - although I have heard of it happening. As for after you`re married - if you`ve been married for 5 years, even if most of that time was spent outside of Japan, you can apply.

You never get it automatically, even if you`ve been married for 20 years and have 10 kids. You HAVE to apply just like everyone else.

Also - more in regards to living costs. It is very possible to live on very little... However, you do need to keep in mind that you can`t START with very little. Apartments require deposits, utilities require hook-up fees (the phone line being the worst of it), etc etc. You can`t walk up with 100,000 and expect to survive the first month if you don`t already have all of this lined up.

I have a 3 year visa and a multiple entry re-entry permit valid until the end of my visa. I think that's the max it can get. I am not sure though..

yeah permanent residency have to be applied.

5 years? Is it only applicable for those married to Japanese nationals? Cause I know some people who are single and they were required to live here for at least 10years. One was even denied and the reason was he did not reach 10years yet. :) After about 8 months I guess, he re-applied and was granted.

Also, though I've got a general idea, how much yen go's to the american dollar, meaning, exchange rate. Just wondering. I know in japan I'll be making yen, but since I don't live in japan yet, and I do wish to visit japan sometime, I'd like to know.

Also, what is the normal work week(hours and days) and what is minimum wage there?

$1 is about 89.3 I Just think ￥100 is 100 ¢

I think minimum wage is like $5.00 but not sure

I think you are talking about the tourist visa which is valid for three months. In that case the answer is yes. If you leave the country then return, you just get another tourist visa coming in. A work visa I believe has to be sponsored by your employer or a proof of employment so the answer in that case would be no.

the current dollar-yen exchange rate as of today is

$1 - 120.75yen

minimum rate? Last time I know was between 700yen to 1000yen per hour .. am not sure how much right now ( if there is any changes )

The current exchange rate is 121.42 yen to the US dollar. One easy way to calculate the exchange, go to google and type in 1 usd in yen. Or you can enter the amount of yen and get the US dollar equivalent by typing yen in usd.

Currently, 10,000 yen (a man) equals 80 bucks. At 110 to the dollar, it would be 90 and of course at 100 it would be 100 dollars.

This will make a huge difference when you start changing a lot of money one way or the other. For example if I change 1,000 US to yen right now it would be about 121,000 yen. Then maybe I wait till the dollar falls and the yen strengthens to 110 to the dollar and I have made a hundred dollars switching back and forth.

Yeah I had that backwards my bad :D

Really? The last time I renewed my visa, they had signs posted everywhere about how they were no longer issuing re-entry permits for over a year, regardless of how long the visa you had was. I was planning to apply for a 3 year re-entry permit when I picked up my visa, but as they were no longer issuing anything longer than a year, I didn`t bother.

Now that I looked into it, yes, it is for if you`re married. Oops. I`m married to a Japanese national, so I`ve never so much as looked at the requirements for if you`re not. So, yes, it does seem that you`d have to have lived in Japan for over 10 years before applying if you`re single or married to someone who isn`t Japanese.

then it's settled:D
you can always manage somehow..

Im thinking around 250,000 if you want to live with the basics, in a city like Tokyo

what do you consider "basics" ?

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.