I’ve been in Tokyo for three years now and here is the cost of living in Tokyo from my experiences as a foreigner who speaks little Japanese to none:
Housing (apartment or mansion)
1. Shibuya area (Meguro-ku) — 10 mins from train station:
~85k JPY per month for 1R room (22sqm)
2. Akasaka area (Minato-ku) — 5 mins from train station:
~220k JPY per month for 1LDK room (42sqm)
Mobile phone and data
Use MVNO for lower price:
~4k JPY per month for 7GB with usable phone number (if you make a call, you pay additional)
Home Internet
~5,000JPY per month including everything (FLET Mansion course with 200Mbps download and 1GB upload)
Electricity, Water, and Gas
I lived alone and did not conserve anything; always turn on an air condition or heater when I feel hot or cold so everything combined is around 13,000JPY (although, I know someone who conserved and can make it under 6,500JPY)
Foods (in Akasaka, Minato)
- A convenience store is around 400–800JPY (One potion meal or sandwich + juice)
- Lunch at standard restaurant 1,000–1,500JPY /set of meal
- Dinner at standard restaurant 1,800–2,500JPY /set of meal
- UberEats is standard restaurant price (+5–10%) + delivery fee 300–450JPY
- Dinner fine dining can be 3,000++ (the upper range is undefined, I had one delicious sushi meal for 30k JPY once)
- Starbucks is around 400–800JPY
- When you are poor, go with ramen cup or fast food restaurant (McDonald or Matsuya/Sukiya) you can get a decent meal for ~500JPY
More points that I notice:
- Clothes in Japan is cheaper than Thailand (and better quality)
- Cosmetic (like manly face serum) is less expensive than Thailand
- If you speak Japanese, you probably can make your cost of living lower by reading about promotion or coupon clipping (and you have more chance to get the house that you want)
- The first move in cost for the apartment here is crazy (think of 3–4 months worth of rent to be paid) so please prepare a load of money before you move here
- Cooking sometimes can be more expensive mainly, if you don’t have cheap supermarket around. Although, my good friends can save a load of money by cooking (not me somehow)
I hope this blog post will help you to get a general knowledge of Tokyo cost of living. Please note that this is from my observation and experiences so it might not apply to every case. Like I have a very comfortable lifestyle (not like a rich guy); if your primary goal is to save money, you can expect like 20%–30% cheaper thing if you are willing to walk longer to a cheaper supermarket or live quite far from a train station.
