The Inequality Problem Nobody Likes To Talk About

This month I received...

Tokyo, one of the world's richest cities, thrives amidst Japan's economic stagnation. But what's behind the disparity between the city and the countryside. Migration, innovation, and birth rates are all important to understand the reason for the biggest inequality gap that nobody talks about.

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[knpark]

If Kanto seems too huge, look no further. The population of Seoul Metro area is now more than half of the total population of South Korea. 25 million people is not as big as Kanto in absolute numbers but proportionately speaking Seoul metro has a bigger economic and political monopoly than Kanto within the country it is in.

[misosoppa]

The one thing EE doesn't mention is that Tokyo is ridiculously cheap to live in compared to most other rich and big cities, including Sydney.

[abdullahibrahim]

I think Tokyo deserves more than an 8 for "stability & confidence" and for "industry"

[dandeduck]

I like how he goes "It's simply mind-blowing. It gets an 8/10" This rating system makes no sense some times

[berekqinah]

The biggest difference in expense living in Tokyo versus rural US was the fact that I didn't need a car in Tokyo. Thus, my overall living expenses dropped moving to Tokyo from Florida.

[geoffk]

One thing that you didn't mention is that Tokyo has a superb local transportation infrastructure. You can easily live in Tokyo without a car. But, if you move to a suburb or rural area, you will need one. This is a huge additional annual cost, and also has an impact on the larger economy, as energy is mostly imported in Japan.

[MasayaShida]

I visited tokyo in 2018 and it was a life changing experience for me because I grew up in a developing country a tiny fraction of Japans economy. All the functioning infrastructure, actual city planning, ... It gave me a sense of perspective just how big and far ahead economies like Japan the US or Australia are

[eolill]

Low birth rates obviously depend on the affordability of having children... but as someone who lives in Korea, money/housing is far from the only rpoblem. Cities (especially megacities) also increase the pressure and competitiveness workers feel. Many people I know are not having children because they barely have time and energy to take care of themselves, and can't imagine taking care of a child.

[Neversa]

A great example of that is in Kazakhstan. Almaty, the biggest city of the country, has fertility rate of 1.8 and neighboring Almaty region has 3.9.
Just 20 kilometers from city centre rents drop from 700-800$ to 200$ and less

[fernandocaye]

Feel like this video started with Tokyo in mind and then started focusing in a lot of problems that are common to cities in english speaking countries but don't really apply that much to Tokyo.

[piekay]

Interesting. In Baden-Württemberg (Germany) the opposite is mostly the case, where small cities (under 60.000 inhabitants) are in a better economic situation than cities like Berlin, or even our capital Stuttgart.

[Rman]

The regional inequalities that exist in some countries is truly staggering actually. For instance the differences between places like Bangkok and Addis Ababa to the rest of the countries they are in is significant. I am honestly confused how the economies of such places function.

[nishant]

Tokyo being placed below japan, IMO there is gross error in calculation as tokyo effectively drives japan economy. At least considering the parameters of leader board that is growth, stability, confidence and size. And since all the rural areas are pulling the average down, Tokyo should have higher average score to makeup for loss.

Also, as it is a city so benefit of doubt should be given because accurate data collection is a challenge.

[Frank_Starkly]

I've met people from New York and California who moved to my home state of Oregon, that drastically improved their standard of living. They moved from homes with less than 1, 000 square feet to the giant house on the hill.
The US dollar doesn't have the same buying power equally across the country and there are a lot more examples than just housing.

[kendelion]

I live in Japan and so far I don't see the need to move to Tokyo.
Everything I need is in this "small city" Okayama.
The good thing about Japan is everything is standardized. You can go to tokyo, hokkaido, kumamoto or okinawa and still find good roads,
healthy affordable foods/drinks, great healthcare, and services that's known for its politeness and attention to details.
The only reason people flock to Tokyo is its name.
It's like a brand image already. Try living in other prefectures and you'll be surprised to have a better living condition.

[vod]

Housing in Tokyo may be more expensive than outside of Tokyo, but compared to the median salary in Tokyo, its very much affordable. Add to that that there is no housing shortage in Tokyo, in fact there is an excess supply in housing and that most apartments are no older than 30 years - saying its hard to move in and out of Tokyo is ridiculous.

So making a comparison with moving into Sydney and moving into Tokyo arent comparable.

In Japan, housing is also relatively cheap to buy, especially outside of Tokyo due to low regulatory barriers on the housing market

[thecuddlyaddict]

Privately owned housing that is used as an investment is one of the main drivers making housing unaffordable. Instead of being used as a utility that facilitates a value adding worker being able to live there affordably, the price is dictated by an expected return on investment and the competition of buyers and not renters. This is evidenced by the fact that many apartments often stand unoccupied and are used as short term rentals instead of being used to house a permanent member of that community. The chase for profit in everything, including essentials such as housing, is what is squeezing average people for all that they have.

[storminmormin]

If you’re doing videos about economics on a sub national level, I’d love to see a video about Utah. It seems to be an outlier on many economic metrics. It also has skyrocketing housing prices, while simultaneously maintaining high wealth mobility. It’s really an odd case.

[Jay_in_Japan]

idk how good of an example Japan is, because such a huge portion of the population lives in cities. I mean, I live in a relatively obscure city that no one's heard of outside of Japan, but there's still several million people here. Relatively few people live outside these large cities, so I think the inequality effect is somewhat blunted. Besides the notable difference between Tokyo and the rest of the country, there's not much difference place to place. But Tokyo's always been "the other Japan".

[КонстантинГеоргиев-иф]

I think this problem is especially relevant for Eastern Europe and the Balkans as well. Here in Bulgaria, for example, economic growth is very heavily concentrated in the capital city (Sofia), which contains 20% of the population but 40% of our national GDP. It is also the only one of over 260 municipalities where the median income is higher than the national average