10 Most Expensive Cities to Live in Japan

Whether you are actually planning on moving there, or just dreaming about it; knowing which are the 10 Most Expensive Cities to Live in Japan, will help you figure out if a life on the Japanese islands can fit your budget.

With the world’s highest life expectancy rate -80 for men and 87 for women, according to the World Health Organization, and one of the world’s highest standards of living, the idea of a new life in Japan can sound very tempting to some.

Japan was very reclusive for a large part of its history, but since it opened up to the western world in the mid 19th century, it started an age-long cultural exchange that still goes on today. But still, though very westernized, Japanese culture still hangs on to a lot of its own rites and traditions, so it is recommended for foreigners to be familiarised with Japanese language and customs, before embarking on the journey of migrating to this country.

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Though cheaper than some of its middle-eastern counterparts, Japanese cities still rank among some of the most expensive to live in Asia; and because of the country’s mountainous geography, most of them are located near the coasts, giving way to very densely populated areas. There are over twelve cities in Japan with a population that tops a million inhabitants.

Using a similar method to the one used in our previous article, 10 most expensive cities to live in Germany, we put together all the information provided by Expatistan and Numbeo. These sites gather up user-contributed information on each city’s food, housing, transportation, clothing and entertainment costs, and give out an average rating of the city’s overall living expenses. We checked this information against the Property Price Index Report provided by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and Mercer’s Report on the world’s most expensive cities for expatriates. Each city got a particular ranking depending on the source. We added up every ranking and made an average to give you our list of the 10 most expensive cities to live in Japan. Which one do you think will be first? A little hint: It’s not Tokyo!