Victory Manual

I came across a blog which asserts that living in Japan is expensive, despite what other foreigners may have to say on the issue. Based on my own view and experience, I still insist that it’s actually more affordable than living back in the States.

The author of the above-mentioned blog presents her arguments with some minor fallacies, including circumstantial ad hominem, misleading vividness, and appeal to authority, and she even goes so far as to reduce counter-evidence to only two options of arguments. In addition, she greatly generalizes the lifestyles of other foreigners who do not hold the same weight of experience in her eyes. (In this case, she implies that long-term residents hold more authority on the issue simply because of their status’ as long-term residents) But, for lack of empirical evidence, this debate is forced to be based on personal experience.

…most foreign folks forget, ignore, or don’t pay some expenses that long term residents (and Japanese nationals) have to pay. The gaijin intent on proving his point about how Japan isn’t expensive commonly includes rent, utilities, and food in his calculations, but ignores things like the need to buy new clothes and replace durable goods through time.

In my own experience, foreigners living in Japan actually buy more than they need. It’s the souvenir-mentality - The idea that consumer goods in a foreign land are more desirable than goods from their own countries. A stroll through Harajuku or Shibuya will hint at just how much foreigners are buying, whether they are English teachers or exchange students. This isn’t limited to clothes - Electronics from Akihabara, bags from Shibuya, and cosmetics from Shinjuku are further examples of nonessentials. (For the record, I had an addiction to buying brand-name soccer bags to carry all my junk around in. I still have them! My precious white Adidas bags.)

…the foreign people who come over here for a year or who move around a lot often never pay regular expenses that people who stay in one place for more than a year start having to pony up the dough for.

On the contrary, moving around a lot results in possibly higher expenses. 礼金 (reikin; “key money”) is a system where a new tenant pays the landlord a sum usually equal to one month’s rent, of which none is refunded. On top of that, the average apartment requires a security deposit equal to two months rent, and the “cleaning fee” from the final inspection of an apartment can result in a lot of that security deposit being deducted from. Yet, still, the cost of apartments in Japan, on average, is not very high at all. Of course, living in the heart of Tokyo or Osaka is going to be just as ridiculously priced as living in the heart of New York.

Back in the U.S., people pay an average of 21% of their income on housing. Food costs similarly tend to take up a certain percentage of your income. I can’t speak for other areas of Japan as I’ve not lived all over the place, but I can say that Tokyo rent can take up to 25% or more of a person’s income (in most cases). Food has actually been getting cheaper since we first moved here though it is still costing us a greater percentage of our income compared to back home.

Here, the author compares an average cost in the entire United States versus the cost of just Tokyo, which is an absurd thing to do. Even so, most young people in the States live with roommates because they can’t afford a place of their own. This scenario is less likely in Japan, as people either live at home, live in a “One Room Mansion” (studio apartment), or live in company owned housing which is either free or very cheap. To give another perspective, the population of my city in Japan compared to the population of the cities I lived in back in California are similar, but in Japan a two bedroom apartment is 20% of my salary from work in Japan, while a two bedroom apartment in San Diego or Santa Barbara is 40% of my salary from work in the States. Of course, this scales depending on salaries, but, relatively, they remain the same in comparison.

…and having to always use public transport does have an element of degrading your quality of life.

This is, flat out, personal preference. Disputing the above, it can be construed that one is forced into car ownership in the States because of the very low quality of public transportation. I, personally, find the subway/train system much more desirable in Japan. I don’t understand why people would even want to own a car in Tokyo (or Los Angeles, for that matter). Back home I couldn’t imagine being car-less while having to go to work everyday, and that forced me into insurance, maintenance, and gas fees, on top of the cost of the car itself. Contrariwise, Japan goes as far as to offer a 定期券 (teikiken; “monthly pass”) system that enables the user to travel anywhere between two locations an unlimited amount for one month. (Usually people use the pass between the station closest to their home and the station where their work or school is)

It isn’t so much that Japan is actually inexpensive to live in but rather that most foreigners learn to adapt to a lifestyle which allows them to live with the higher expense comfortably.

I feel this is actually supporting my side of the argument. If you try to adapt a Western lifestyle to an Eastern country, you’re going to be paying more for living costs because everything will need to be imported. You can compare this to someone living in Hawaii - If you don’t want to eat coconuts everyday dressed in hula skirts, you’re going to have to pay for the shipping costs incurred in hauling your desired goods to you. That’s a little bit extreme, but what I’m suggesting is that if you are comparing the cost of living in any country, you will have to “go native”, so to speak. Even in your home country, there are tons of examples of different lifestyles, and it’s also true in Japan. Not everyone eats 大トロ (O-toro; marbled tuna sushi) everyday.

The final thing I want to add here is simply my own case. As a single-income family in Japan we can afford to send my wife to a national university and our daughter to a 保育園 (hoikuen; day care), which would be very difficult for us to do back in the States. Here, we have an uncommon cost that the author mentioned towards the beginning of her own entry - Attending a national university is not as financially straining in Japan as it would have been back home. (Compare $6,000 per year to anywhere between $10,000 (cheap) to $20,000 (UC standard) per year. On top of that, as my wife is also a foreigner in Japan, she is entitled to some excellent scholarships.)