Japan and America's Costs: Rent

a.t.kumagai
8 hours ago
4 min read

Before jumping into money talk, I want to go over apartments in general when it comes to renting in Japan versus America.

Culture:

Most apartments don't come equip with many of the items that American apartments have provided. One of those items being a stove. I can already hear someone yelling, "My apartment came with a stove. What is she going on about?" That's great! I'm really happy you got a stove because that's a huge burden off your shoulders. However, it isn't common, and it's not required.

Apartments also don't come with other items such as refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, and (annoyingly) air conditioners. I've even been to a lot of apartments that didn't have lights installed. I can't count the number of apartments we visited where it was bare bones nothing. Of course, this also means the price might be cheaper for you as the renter. It's also nice because you own the items you buy and can therefore take them with you to the next place.

If buying those appliances seems taxing, there are apartments for a higher cost that provide them to you. Your monthly rent will be higher and in the long run it might not make sense financially.

I know that this is also a possibility in America. There are landlords who don't want to provide those items. However, while apartment hunting in America, I often found that many apartments included appliances such as stoves and refrigerators. Air conditioning, too, of course. This meant, as a renter, I didn't need to save excessively to buy those big appliances.

Japan and America have a similar culture when it comes to providing first month's rent and last month's rent. There's also something called "key money" in Japan, which I can best sum up as a non-refundable thank you gift. This payment is not a security deposit and you'll never see it again. Similar to America, there's also a realtor's fee you have to pay to whatever company helped you find the apartment.

One-Bedroom Apartments:

I'm focusing my articles on a single person living alone. For now, it's easier to calculate expenses. With that in mind, I've focused my research on what a single person would look for in an apartment. Japan has apartments that are much smaller than a one-bedroom. The cost calculation, however, would become complex and confusing. If you want to live in an apartment of 200 square feet, then your rent might be cheaper.

After much research, I found that one-bedroom apartments in America typically average out at around 800 square feet. This gives you more space for furniture and appliances. The average cost of an apartment is around $1,575. America is a large country and, of course, the prices can be significantly higher in some areas and much lower in others.

Japanese apartments, however, are smaller. I focused on 1LDK, which is pretty much what a one-bedroom apartment is. The average size is typically around 400 square feet. This is nearly half the size of an American apartment. The average cost of a 1LDK is around 78,000円($534.55). Japan is also diverse and the cost of an apartment in Tokyo versus Fukuoka is going to be different.

Overall:

Now, let's go back over some previous details in my last post. We discussed the difference in salary and the slight similarities in cost for monthly utilities and food. I'll repost the information below just for quick reference's sake.

Salary:

America: $5000

Japan: 288,285円($2000 depending on the yen's value that day)

Utilities:

America: $144

Japan: 16,973円($117.75)

Food:

America: $300

Japan: 38,000円($263.63)

If you're living in America, so far, your expenses will look something like this:

America: $144 + $300 + $1,575 = $2,019

That's about 40.38% of your salary. This leaves you with $2,981 left over.

If you're living in Japan, your expenses will look something like this:

Japan: 16,973円($117.75) + 38,000円($263.63) + 78,000円($534.55) = 132,973円($911.28)

That's about 46.13% of your salary. This leaves you with 155,312円($1064.38) left over.

When it comes to costs in general, it really does boil down to location and luck. Whether your company provides a higher salary or you were able to snag a cheaper apartment makes a huge difference. What I've shown here is just a possibility. If you move to Japan, you might find yourself living in an apartment that takes a bigger bite out of your salary every month.

There's still much for me to go over. I hope to dig deeper into transportation costs in the next post and talk about the big differences in medical costs. Also, I'm human! I'm not perfect and if my math is flawed, please let me know! I'm more than happy to fix my mistakes.

Sources:

I didn't add many American-based English resources. (Also, I think it's easy for people to research in English since many Americans might read this) Most of my time and energy went to reading Japanese articles and finding the common average.