No, Renting in Tokyo Isn't As Cheap As It Seems - Here’s Why

And what did we learn from all this? That I shouldn't have chosen an economic topic? Yes, but also that it's a bad idea to use comparison when it comes to cost of living. There are just too many factors lol. ANYWAY - I'm really happy to be here in Tokyo, regardless of the price increase!

He's seriously, so knowledgable about real estate, Japan, renting, tenant rights and buying property so I can't recommend him enough!

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:45 - The Average Rental
04:19 - The (very) Average Salary
06:07 - The Foreigner Problem
08:25 - The Pet Problem
09:55 - The Earthquake Problem
11:05 - Know Your Renters Rights!
13:00 - How much am I paying?
14:59 - Size matters (of apartments I mean)
16:35 - Bring out the Google Sheet!
19:26 - Oh no, put away the Google Sheet
20:29 - Smaller is good sometimes?
23:06 - Uh oh, she's sponsoring herself again

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#currentlyhannah #livinginjapan #lifeintokyo

[tempura_samurai]

Okay, I’m Japanese living in Canada right now as a grad student. Everyone says rooms and kitchen are tiny in a Japanese apartment. But tbh living in a one-bedroom apartment by yourself for 100, 000 yen in Tokyo with a great accessibility to really good public transportation, a great hygiene, and affordable living expenses is much better than Toronto. You don’t have to care about other roommates and can live in a quiet space where you can work from home, invite your friends, cook whenever you want. As a Japanese who used to live in an apartment by myself and is living in a shared house in Toronto for higher rent than the average Japanese apartment, I would say Japanese rent is much bette even with small rooms. I actually wanted to have some work experience after finishing my program, but I’m currently leaning toward going back to Japan because of the living environment.

[xBris]

When it comes to affordability in places like Japan or Germany, where there are strong renter protection laws, one extremely important factor is rent time: How long have people lived in their rented apartments. That's why median statistics often show quite reasonable prices, but you just cannot find any actually available flats for a similar price: The people living in the cheap flats just won't move out but even if they do, most rent protections are lifted and the same place is rented for a huge up-charge to somebody new.

[jonmartinez]

Wow Hannah, this video is amazing. Super in detail and with a super good rythm. I guess this took a considerable amount of time and effort to make, but it was worth it. With an internet full of half-true info or data looking to bait people to engage with the content (usually in negatice ways), having quality content like this is becoming very rare. Thank you for this!

[seerasan]

I loved this deep dive Hannah, so insightful!! Your new apartment looks beautiful too 😍✨

I also agree that it doesn’t make any sense to simply compare the cost of living in Japan with your own salary from back home (commonly USD) as a base reference, especially right now with the weak yen and how the exchange rate fluctuates. Been thinking this for a long time, so I’m glad you said it!

Side note - had no idea about the origins of key money either 😮

[shindenkokonomaru]

A major factor in the costs to income comparisons is equity in pay/ the scales. NYC might have a very affluent upper 10 or 20% but the majority of people working in the city can't afford to live near where they work, and the demand for some of the upper middle income people to live in NYC is very low, so they end up commuting from Long Island or Connecticut or New Jersey. I came to Tokyo as a student after working 5 years in manufacturing engineering for aerospace, my pay was around $40, 000, OT not included. I cannot afford an apartment back in the rural northeastern state I grew up in. I can literally say things I have made are on Mars but I couldn't afford a 1 bedroom apartment in the middle of nowhere.

Tokyo's median is low because pay stays the same across most strata of society. Minimum wage is around $15, 000 per year while the minimum wage in my state was around the same. Difference is, you can get a 1R for $500 but a studio (same thing as a 1R) in my state is $1400 on the LOW end. But the "median" wage in that state is $47, 000, even though nobody I know below the age of 50 makes that, and it's still not enough for the state average for a 1 bedroom apartment at 30% of income.

For reasons I can't get into I am returning to the US for the foreseeable future, however, the jobs I qualified for (but would not be able to sponsor my visa) would pay me *more* than I was getting in the US, and my rent here is HALF of what I was paying as a share of my rent living with other people, and still $300 less than my mortgage 3 years ago. And the job offers I was getting trying to get me to quit my school to work full time for them, were all foreign companies, and were offering $60, 000 to $90, 000 because "nobody wanted to relocate". A year later, oops, none of those positions are open because people realized they can live more than opulently in Yokosuka or Kanagawa for that kind of pay.

If you're working for a company in Tokyo you can expect to start around $30, 000 and "climb" to around $60, 000, but the thing is, wages and prices are still extremely stagnant here. Prices have barely changed in 15, 20 years while in the US most things have DOUBLED in the same amount of time. So you end up with Tokyo, a place that was considered insanely expensive and very well paid 30 years ago now being "extremely cheap" and "low paid" because CPI has remained about the same, and so has quality of life, while people struggle in other places because of wildly out of control CPI increases.

If you split up the population into ten percentile chunks and compare peer cities in the US to Tokyo, Tokyo's increase will be a gentle slope while the US's will look like an exponential curve. And nobody building housing in the US is looking at making sure there is a bracket of affordability for each income bracket, they are all looking to maximize ROI by exclusively making "luxury" apartments that are around the same build quality as public housing in Austria but because there are jacuzzi jets in the leaking tub and 3 square feet of marble in a coffee nook in the kitchen it's going to demand $500/mo over market rates.

Tokyo also has share houses (not "renting a room" in someone's house, a building of individual rooms, most with private baths, sharing a kitchen and common space, all residents are renting rooms) which is basically impossible to legally build or rent in the US which is not factored into your statistics. Those are easily affordable even on Tokyo minimum wage while there is no city in the US where a minimum wage earner can afford to live alone.

The final word is quality of life. People will balk at the "cut in pay" but don't realize that they will be living in an area far more accessible, comfortable, safe, and enriching than they would get where they are coming from. Especially coming from the US, it really feels like a third world country going through a major economic depression at this point compared to Tokyo. $80, 000 a year and not having good healthcare and even having to pay $10, 000+ medical bills with insurance if something goes wrong, not being able to walk through the park without seeing the worst victims of society floundering in public, having to drive somewhere to have a meal at $40 a pop for mediocre food and having to pay a tip, driving back to your home, having to worry about not drinking or making any mistakes while driving or you have to pay a few days worth of pay for a ticket, or $40, 000 and a society that has your back and basically having a world of experience within a 15 minute walk and access to the best transportation system in the world, it's up to you.

[natenoisy]

the spreadsheet comparing rent-to-income in different cities was very cool!

[emmaroesler]

Thankyou for all the effort you put into your videos.
I love the actual honesty, not the "clickbatey" stuff that is around.

[emmaleey]

This is so true - I just moved to Tokyo from the USA with my husband about a month ago and it’s been such a learning experience! We came from a really affordable city in the US so price per sq meter is so much higher here in Tokyo, and I’m having to get used to a much smaller space than the 3 bedroom house we had in the US! We’re really lucky that we’re here on a secondment and so are still getting paid in USD through the American branch of the Japanese company my husband works for, because you’re 1000% right that the salary comparison, let alone the strength of the yen right now, makes such an impact. We’ve been trying to make this move for a couple of years now, and I’ve loved watching your videos as a way to get a sense of what it’s like in Japan before we moved here! ❤

[CaptCharles]

Honestly, if you're willing to make another video about the house market, I would love it! I'm planning to move out there and looking at my options, it can get confusing..

[dinges]

Tokyo might not be cheap, but at least there seem to be enough appartments to find something. In a lot of European cities (looking at you Amsterdam) there just don't seem to be any places to rent or buy.... Awesome video, very insightful!

[ragechibi]

American, live in Japan - even with salary difference, Japan is leagues more affordable because I don’t have a lot of the other necessary expenses to America - namely NEEDING to own a car in America - and my transport is paid for by my company here which is common in Japan.

[LIJ]

Welcome to Tokyo! Hope you love it here :) Great comparison and breakdown of the whole process. I kept thinking "Wow, she worked hard on this and it shows!" Great video.

[ElinaOsborne]

SO. HELPFUL. I wanna see this Japan home investment video pls.

[DoomGoober]

I really enjoy "Hannah Explains" videos. Hannah explains sunscreen. Hannah explains rent in Japan.

[maoeast]

Man, this is the most indepth video for someone who is planing to move to Tokyo. Thank you.

[dotto]

Excellent video! I used to live in Tokyo, but moved back to Sydney and now live in Melbourne. I too got kind of annoyed at the Tiktoks, Reddit posts etc. saying how cheap Tokyo was when the reality was different, mostly due to the salaries, but also the upfront costs. However, I will say that Australia should look at the decent renter protections (pet rules excluded) that Japan offers.
At the time I left, I was slightly above the median salary and found a cheap place in Toshima-ku, about 30m2 for 83, 000yen/month. As I grew older and became more homely (covid didn't help) I gradually became more frustrated with the lack of space and living in the crowded city in general. Anything bigger quickly got out of my price range. I moved back to Sydney and while Japan will always have a place in my heart, I feel I have a better quality of life here in Australia (for more than pure economic reasons). That said, I moved in the midst of the housing crisis and the rental prices were insane. My place in Melbourne, however, which I rent with my partner, is nicer than most apartments you'd find in Tokyo and, given the salaries we earn here, probably more affordable.

[nannyg]

Well done, Hannah. And yes, when you get around to it, I would love to see a "buy a house in Japan" video, especially if you could somehow contrast the urban vs rural situation.

[dtcmmie]

I’m kinda glad I’m living in Osaka now (80k for 1LDK near Umeda) 😅 those Tokyo prices are scary even coming from Sydney!
Great video btw! The quality of the video is super high

[marcgreener]

I was neither angry at the stats or enlightened by the Google sheet. Instead, I spent 5 minutes of the video trying to get rid of the piece of hair on my phone screen that turned out to be the outline of your green screen 😂

Loved the video, super interesting to dive into!

[L_FR]

Wait this video was surprisingly interesting! Especially as someone not in the market for an apartment in Tokyo I still found myself pulled into the many explanations displayed here.
Great job, I’ll definitely come check your channel once in a while now!