Cost of living in Osaka - single person

I've got a 1.5-year job offer in Osaka with a gross pay of 360000yens (before tax) + commuting. How much money would I need to survive monthly? With survive I mean renting a 1R or 1K apartment and cooking my own food at least 5 or 6 days a week. I don't drink and my leisure is maybe going to the cinema or visiting some traditional places.

I have a hard time managing my budget, since I'm not familiar with the daily cost of living. most websites say that Osaka is really expensive! I would like to be able to have some spare money to save or help my family overseas (probably have a short visit home in the holidays if possible)

360k for a single person should be plenty; in Sendai I live very well on 145k and I never cook (though my rent is cheap and my commute is free).

I earn around 100 000 less than that and live by myself in Tokyo and have saved plenty of money so far!
You will be fine as long as you are not a shopaholic or addicted to pachinko ;)

Hi fedup, From my experience, 90K-140K is what your budget might be. It depends if you stay home or sight see, factoring the travel expenses to the traditonal places, will add up. Daily expenses could be around 1000-2000 yen, if you make your own breakfast, lunch and dinner. To give you a sense, here's an example of the highend of rent/electric/gas/internet/daily meals.

Rent 1K (outside of Umeda & unfurnished) w/water) 40000
Electric (varies because of TV&Computer) 4000
Gas (varies because of cooking&bath) 4000
Internet 5000
Cell phone 8000
Total 61000 + (2000 yen X 30days=60000) = 121000

Don't know if your company will give you relocation money or let you borrow furniture, for your first month's rent, you will probably need to front the money. You should prepare to bring up enough money to buy your household essentials to survive until your first paycheck. If you find a place think about if you might be having friends over, uni-baths, windows and the direction with the wind (gets real hot in the summer) if the apartment comes with an AC. Hopefully someone from your company will be assisting you settling in. Sorry for the long repsonse, hope this helps a little. Everyone has different experiencecs, this was mine.
Welcome to Osaka!