Ok, you checked your options and decided you wanna to go Japan to study or work. If you go to Japan for work, you don’t necessarily have to calculate your expenses in advance, as you will get money while you are there but if you go to Japan to study I strongly recommend playing with some figures to see how much money your daily life will cost you. And even if you have some kind of income while you are in Japan, knowing how much you can expect to pay every month might be pretty useful.

The numbers I’ll present here are based on my own experience (as I’m tracking my expenses on a daily basis) and some of my friends. Depending on your life style and where you are gonna live in Japan your expenses might be a little bit different, but getting some concrete figures might be a good point of reference.

Let’s start with your fixed costs.

Rent

No matter if you are gonna stay at a guesthouse, a weekly mansion or get your own place, rent is most likely the biggest chunk of your monthly expenses. This page  gives you a great overview about the average rent you can expect based on the area (only for Tokyo). On the left you see the ward or city name and the columns show you the average prices for different room sizes. All prices are in 10.000 Yen. So for example for a one-room apartment in Minato-Ku you pay almost 120.000 Yen on average. Yes, it is REEEEAAALLLYYY expensive!

Most of my friends and I pay about 75.000 to 95.000 JPY for apartments ranging from 16 sqm to 25 sqm in Setagaya-Ku (世田谷区). Obviously you can cut your costs if you choose to stay at a guesthouse , share a room http://www.borderless-house.com/ . But if you don’t wanna commute for too long every day and get more than 16 sqm I’d calculate with at least 75.000 Yen.

Utilities

For gas, water and electricity I pay around 12.000 Yen all together and then another 5.000 Yen for internet access at my place.

Phone

Although a phone doesn’t really belong into the fixed costs part, it’s more or less indispensable. Most of my friends have an iPhone (especially my foreign friends) and we all pay something between 5.000 and 10.000 Yen.

If you sum it all up, you can expect to pay between 97.000 and 122.000 Yen. Yes, that’s a whole lotta money. If you go to Japan on an exchange program you might get lucky and get a place at your university’s dormitory, which helps you a lot to reduce your fixed costs. If work (or an internship) is bringing you to Japan, you can also check if the company provides some housing allowance or even offers a place at their dormitory (as some companies provide apartments or dormitories for their employees).

Average variable costs

Now, except the monthly fixed costs you also have a lot of expenses depending on how much you eat out, go for drinks, watch a movie etc.

Eating out

If you eat outside you can expect to pay about 700 and 1.500 Yen for a lunch. Junk food options are of course cheaper but I wouldn’t recommend calculating your expenses based on eating Junk food every day.

I personally eat out a lot and spend about 40.000 Yen on average for lunch, dinner, coffee, and drinks out with friends – quite a lot as I think about it now…

Transportation

Taking the train or sometimes even a taxi sums up as well and depending on where you live that amount can get pretty high as well. If you live closer to the area you hang out most of the time (school, work place etc.) you don’t have to pay much for transportation but will most likely pay more for rent. If you live close to the main areas of your daily life you can expect to pay about 10.000 Yen on average a month.

Groceries

Regardless of if you cook/eat at home everyday or not, you will most likely always have some food and drinks at your place. And buying something at a convenience store or vending machine around the corner sums up over time as well, so expect to pay another 40.000 to 50.000 Yen on average here as well.

Shopping

As Japan is the fashion and high tech capital of the world, you might feel tempted to buy lotsa stuff. If you are not interested in fashion or high tech at all, you might be able to safe a lotta money here. So this one totally depends on you. You can spend everything from just a few thousand Yen up to how much you want.

Giving the averages above, you can expect to have average variable costs of about 100.000+ Yen. Together with the fixed costs you might end up spending 200.000 Yen every month easily, not taking into account special occasions like birthdays, weddings, travel etc.

Your variable costs are easily adjustable but if you really want to safe money, try to cut your fixed costs as well as you can. Saving 10.000 Yen on your rent by choosing a smaller place or dormitory is much easier than telling your friends “no” if they invite you for dinner or partying.

Instead of saving over a couple of years and then spending all your savings over a few months in Japan I recommend to get a side job or some money through a scholarship program while you are in Japan.

Also, check out the post about finding a place to live in Japan and take the initial costs of moving in into consideration as well.

Got any ideas how to cut costs or any other experiences regarding your expenses in Japan? Leave us a comment or send us a mail!

If you are from North America like me, you know (or should know at least if you passed grade 9 geography) that Japan is on the other side of the planet. That being said, it isn’t exactly a hop, skip and a jump away, and just to get there you are looking at an expense of over $1,000. For me personally, I’ve paid as much as $1,400 just for a one way flight to Canada! So if money is indeed an issue (which I’m certain it is for most of us average Joes out there) then you might want to read on to find out how we can keep our flight expenses as low as possible!

Depending on the purpose of your visit to Japan you might even be lucky enough to swindle your way out of the steep price you have to pay for just getting there, as certain companies and schools will provide a flight allowance just to get you to Japan (more on how to go about getting this in future posts). In my case, JASSO gave me a 140,000 yen (approx $1,700CAD) “landing bonus” as they like to call it. Smart me decided to spend it on booze and shopping however, instead of putting it towards my flight home (whoooops). But, seeing as that can’t always be the case, and probably about 80% if not more of us that go to Japan will be going by reaching into our own pockets, let us look at this post as the travellers guide to cheap flights.

Tip #1) Avoid your country’s own holidays.

These are always the most expensive times of the year, and I’ve heard of certain people paying upwards of $3,000CAD just to get back to Canada to see their folks for Christmas. I love my family, but three grand is a fair chunk of change to be riding economy. Skype was invented for a reason

Some of these annual holidays include:

• Christmas
• New years
• Summer holidays (July – August)
• Thanksgiving
• Easter

Tip #2) Avoid Japan’s holidays

Japan has a few holiday seasons that one would not expect and are thus noteworthy to avoid traveling during these times as flights will be jacked up and everything will be jam-packed with Japanese tourists!

These holidays are:

• New years and winter holidays (Mid December – Mid January)
• Golden Week (more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_(Japan) ) (typically the end of April going into the first week of May)
• Obon festival (Mid-August but flight prices will be stacked even more as this couples with summer holidays in North America as well)

Tip #3) go when you’d least expect it

Truly the best way to save big bucks on a flight to Japan is to go when it is in low-season (ie. When everyone has work/school/no holidays on either end). Some of these times are:

April – June: Best if you are a university/college student as finals season generally goes up until mid/late-April. This doesn’t conflict with Japan at all as they start their school year in April. My first round trip (direct flight both ways) to Japan was from early May up until the end of June and only cost me $1,000CAD.

Mid-September – November: Nothing exciting going on here, as in North America we just start the school season (summer ends) and Japanese students go into their 2^nd semester of the school year. My 2^nd time going to Japan I snagged a one-way ticket (direct) with Air Canada for $600CAD around Mid-September.

These seasons are also particularly good to travel to Japan as you can avoid holiday rushes and there is much to do and see (Fall – autumn festivals. Spring – cherry blossom season)

Now that you have some extra knowledge in you, hop onto your local cheap flight website and do some snooping around. You will notice there are two major airports in Tokyo: Narita and Haneda. You will be looking for flights through Narita (NRT) as that is the international airport, and Haneda is largely for domestic flights. Remember, if you can get anything within $1,000~$1,300 that is completely reasonable and you should book NOW NOW NOW! Because it can get a looooot worse. Trust me.

Happy flight hunting!