Living in Japan: Rents

I live in New York City and pay about $1000 a month for literally a 100 sq ft apartment. I have a very small room, and a roughly 4 ft x 4 ft kitchen (mini-fridge)which connects to a bathroom. I live in a very nice and convenient area of Brooklyn, so it's worth it because alot of people pay alot more for less, especially in Manhattan.

But what are rent prices like in Tokyo? The Japanese have a well earned reputation for being minimalist space-wise, so I imagine apartments as small as mine are not uncommon.

Also, what is the disparity in neighborhoods? In Brooklyn, for example, there are neighborhoods that you simply would NOT want to live in, on the basis of crime and, with gentrification pushing the poor farther and farther away from Manhattan, commute inconvenience.

Does Tokyo have its "bad" but cheaper districts? Could I, an outsider, live in them safely?

 

I have no idea about Tokyo but GaijinPunch would. Japan doesn't really have good or bad areas based on the people who live there since most places are the same. Rent goes on how convenient the area is. For example if you live by a train station you're rent will be more than if you didn't. I live in a pretty good sized place for Japan and only pay 65'000 yen per month which also includes a car parking space. Not to mention that this place is only 3 years old (I was the first to move in )

Yakumo

 

god yakumo thats about 200 cheaper then the average around where i live, if you can even find a place for rent thats 750 its considered extremely lucky, for the amount you pay most of the time the best you can get is a one room apartment.

 

Are you guys paying "reikin" each year as well and if so how much is it usualy?

 

I'm not too sure what you mean by Reikin. I know the word Renkin but that's mining gold. Anyway, rent in Japan isn't as expensive as people make out as long as you aren't living in Tokyo or Osaka. My rent is just the same payment each month. When I moved in I had to pay 3 months key money (Same almost everywhere in Japan) which is basically meant to be a present for the owner of the house to say thank you for letting you live there. BULL SHIT is what I call it. The owner should be grateful that somebody wants to live there otherwise he'll be getting squat Still, when I leave this place I'll get 1 months money back.

Yakumo

 

礼金　= Reikin = key money, literally courtesy cash! So it looks like Yakumo is falling into that particularly silly custom. Ah for the days of virtually free housing from the goverment that I had.

 

Tokyo is a massive area. YOu can spend from 50,000 yen a month, to 2 million+ a month if you wanted to (and had the money). Here's the few places I lived in:

Meidaimae #1: Shared a two bedroom with two other guys (yes, I shared a room for a while). Was roughly 50 square meters for 160,000 yen a month. It was close to the station, and the area is convenient to Shinjuku and Shibuya trainwise, but is otherwise boring. The only thing there is Meiji University (which is where it got the name).

Meidaimae #2: Had a 19 or so square meter shithole on the 3rd floor, 5 feet away from a major highway (Koushu Kaido). The place was well over 25 years old, and the Ramen restaurant on the first floor let out their sewage 3 times a night which made all the units in the building smell like sulfer. It was awful. This was of course, a 1 room w/ a kitchenette for 75,000 yen per month. I had a shitty job at the time, and the owner of the building was Chinese, so was sympathetic to gaijin w/o a proper "hoshounin".

Ikejiri Oohashi: Much more conveniently located than Meidaimae, you can walk to and from Shibuya in about 20-30 minutes depending on your pace. 15 minutes easily by bicycle if you're not afriad of peddling uphill. Has some cool bars and restaurants. The unit I lived in was 30 square meters on the 1st floor, and well taken care of. Was a few hundred meters away from a decent park. 127,000 yen per month. (Note -- 1st floor apartments in Japan are ALWAYS cheaper than 2nd floor and up)

Tomigaya: My only pimp daddy abode in Japan, I lived here for 9 months until my fucking company decided it was time to move. To sweeten my employment deal, they gave me a housing allowance which is a business expense for them and a tax break for me. 119 square meters, 1.5 bath with a pretty nice shower. A mere 5 minute walk to Yoyogi park, and a 12 minute walk to Shibuya. Shinjuku wasn't that far either. Talked them down to 350,000 yen per month (remember -- I didn't have to pay for most of that, though )

ALL of those places were considered close by Japanese. I generally always had enough side action (teaching private students and sellling games) to warrant the extra money for close quarters. When you get out into Kawasaki, Chiba, and Saitama, you're an hour away from the action, but you can find bigger places for much cheaper. Make no mistake though -- they're not Tokyo.

There are no "bad" neighborhoods in Tokyo in terms of crime. There are in terms of convenience, and if you really studied, probably in terms of earthquake as well. If you're thinking of moving there I can probably give you some ideas for good areas depending on your budget and what you're planning on doing.

Also note that the standard reikin + deposit + apartment locator fee (yes, you pay for this) is 2 + 2 + 1. Throw on top the first month's rent, and you've gotta have 6 months rent up front to move in. So, if your place is $1000 a month, you gotta have $6. Some places you can talk down to 1 month reikin, or maybe zero. I got lucky on my last place. We told them 4 months deposit, no reikin, and they took it.

 

It all depends upon what place you want to live in as well. Do you want a room that's so small that you couldn't even stretch on the floor or a place that's got paper-thin walls or even a shit hole that's falling apart? The truth is that you'll never get anywhere close to what you could actually call a home in Tokyo without shelling out big wads of cash. Why do you think I moved from there? I could never afford a place like I have now in Tokyo.

Yakumo

 

One of my very good freinds lives about one hour's commute from shinjuku on a limited express. The difference in quality of housing and size is really noticable compared to what many of my other freinds in Tokyo call home (cept the bastard in roppongi 4 bedrooms = rich parents). I know what I would prefer. I was on about a 25 mins from Osaka in Japan and it was really no bother and it felt like I was actually living in the countryside-ish.

As for your last comment - you will be given very little to no serious hassle about being a foregner in Japan. Japanese people are more likely to be a little nervous around you. Indeed a model friend of mine in tokyo made a child scream in a convenience store, he is very tall and african. Looks a bit like bobby actually!

 

The average communte in Tokyo (not sure about Osaka) is an hour. That's not that bad considering everyone else is doing it, but remember -- on top of you shift, you have to tack on two hours. One before and one after work. There is sometimes a lot of value in paying more to live in the city.

 

Thanks for the responses guys - extremely informative.

I am currently learning the language and would love to one day move - but it sounds like I will need some serious ¥. I don't know as I could deal with an hour commute either, I love being immersed in the pace of a big city.

A short vacation, on the other hand, is a goal for the immediate future.

 

That's nothing, I used to have to commute for nearly 2 hours each way to/from work, I had to get 3 bus' to get there, and 3 back. It worked out cheaper to move to the city with higher rent than it was living in the sticks and commuting every day.

 

I used to commute 1 hour ten minutes from outside guildford to London - leichester square every single day for a couple of months. It was alright, but you needed the paper or a good novel every couple of days Now it would be psp and 4 episodes of anime a day. In London the cost of the train made it rather pointless (it was all about the work experience then), but in Japan the cost is so much lower, you will probably get more benefit from living out. Still see your point, commutes do grind you down over time.

 

The more and more I hear about these commutes the more and more I value that I could walk two blocks and take the subway 1 stop (3 minutes) to Manhattan.

 

Yep, either that or on the toilet :smt043

Yakumo

 

Where do you think all my old GBA's end up! Mate of mine has a TV built into the wall of his bathroom, gaming in the bath tub anyone?

 

I'm with both of you. The train, and the can. Now that 80% of my commutting is done on a bicycle, it's very dangerous for me to play handhelds... especially w/ the way these fucking morons drive over here.