We’re number one
Comments: 10
Tokyo is yet again the most expensive city in the world in which to live.
Tokyo retained its title of most expensive in Mercer Human Resource Consulting’s survey.
It said it would set you back £1,950 a month in London to rent a luxury two-bedroom unfurnished apartment, compared with £840 in Dublin, £1,311 in Paris and £908 in Rome.
Moscow came in at third place, with Osaka, Japan fourth and Hong Kong fifth.
No prices given for Tokyo.
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Posted to General Rants • 2004.06.14 (Mon) • 10:33
Comments
Posted by Josh Wu 2004.06.14, 10:38
hehe…which is the only reason I’m wondering if I should move there T_T
Posted by Kristen 2004.06.14, 19:50
In Australian dollars from the Herald Sun:
“Rent on a luxury two-bedroom unfurnished apartment for a month costs $6523 in Tokyo, $5221 in London, $2210 in Sydney and $869 in Argentina’s Buenos Aires.”
Posted by David Kaspar 2004.06.14, 22:21
£1,950 / month will only get you a DECENT two-bedroom CENTRAL apartment.
For a luxury one expect from £1,200 / week :-(
Posted by Zelnox 2004.06.14, 23:37
I don’t understand how they calculate this, because I saw Hanoi ranked 29th. It is a Vietnamese city and more expensive than the most expensive Canadian city (Toronot at 89th).
Posted by Eric Ressler 2004.06.15, 04:59
That really depends on your definition of “luxury” in London.
Posted by Cailean 2004.06.15, 09:32
Good thing my 3DK in East Osaka only costs about 65,000 yen a month (about $584 USD.) It was refurbished just before I moved in, and is Osaka municipal housing. Very nice, with a beautiful view of the mountains.
The tatami is new, and I have this nifty bathtub that automatically fills itself at the right temperature and then tells me in a cheerful, feminine voice that it’s ready, courtesy of Osaka Gas. My gas bill is about $10 a month, my electric, $30. Groceries run about $30-$50 a week for a single person. The train is less than a ten-minute bike ride away, and I can be in the heart of Osaka inside half an hour.
It costs me less to live in Osaka, Japan than in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I guess it all depends on how good you are with money, and I don’t feel like I’m skimping on anything.
Posted by vincentvds 2004.06.15, 23:54
The Mercer Cost of Living Survey is designed to help companies decide the remuneration for executives posted overseas. The survey emphasizes thus Western tastes in its basket of goods and services. Example: Rice is not included, but white bread is, costing almost twice as much in Tokyo as in New York. No wonder Tokyo is expensive if you count it that way!
Posted by Kurt 2004.06.17, 02:07
Vincent, yes indeed this survey is bunk because it’s based on executives and not your average Joe….unfortunately it’s these stories that seem to stick and the myth that Japan is ridiculously expensive continues to propagate. Personally I wouldn’t even say it’s expensive relative to the city I moved here from, San Francisco.
All that said though, if they did include rice then this index would have gone through the roof! I mean what, rice is only like 10 times more expensive here than in the States for example. But that’s a whole other topic of protectionism and cozy LDP/rice farmer relations and…
Posted by kevin 2004.06.17, 14:57
Tokyo is surely not that expensive. I am living on less that $900 / month and have more than I need and can handle. It would cost as much or more for me to live in my home-town Bay City MI, simply because I would have to have a car, gas, and car insurrance, and, I would have to heat and cool a larger apartment. (Internet would cost another arm and leg too)
Posted by Minks 2004.06.19, 01:05
Kurt: Rice may be more expensive than in the states, but the comparison is between the price of rice and the price of beef. Americans will eat a shitload of beef and a little rice as a side dish. Japanese will eat a shitload of rice and a little beef as a side dish (once every two weeks).
Seriouisly, Japan is a really cheap place to live these days. Tonight’s meal: 77 yen mackerel, half of a 77 yen package of gyoza, a salad with 25 yen worth of green beans, half a 120 yen grapefruit, etc. the 65,000 yen per month apartment is quite typical (you can get lower monthly payments if you can get a loan to buy a house: interest is 1 or 2% and we’ve looked at 15 million yen (small) houses 20 minutes from the Yamanote line and 10 minutes from the station.). The 100 yen shops sell just about anything these days. 25Mbps internet access with IP telephone service is what, $40/month?
I guess the expats can’t just take the housing allowance in cash an invest it, adopting a more Japanese lifestyle. I wonder if they are paying taxes on the value of their housing (and American Club memberships)? I doubt it. Someone needs to educate the IRS on this scam.
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