About living expenses in japan

Hi, i'm from singapore.I just got my JLPT4 certificate last year and wish to further the language in japan in the future.Thought of taking up a 2years course.Altough the course fees are known,i do know how much is the total monthly expense and can anybody recommand some prefectures for excellent learning?Tokyo is too expensive huh! ‹³‚¦‚Ä‚­‚¾‚³‚¢�B

Why not get a job teaching English in a rural area? That way you are making money and the isolation will force you to learn.

Yes, you are right! Tokyo is so expensive.
In general urban is more expensive than rural. How abou Nagoya? It is not so big city, but not coutry sied.It is convenient to live and study.

Which school will you go?

hi,

i'm aso sporean, currently staying in tokio. for an average decent lifestyle, expect to spend btw 2.5 to 3k per mth.

wat do u aim for in furthering your studies in japanese? b a translator or interpretor? or juz for interest? i dun c why u shld b considering comin here to study when u juz got jlpt 4. it's better tat u study abit more, shld master the basics b4 comin. it's more optimal tat way. living expenses very high in jpn, as compared to spore. aso u'll find it very diff to stay in japan if u r not proficient in japanese. trust mi, very very diff. i felt kinda helpless when i first came here, n i passed my jlpt 2 b4 comin.

looks like they should require a ELPT test before letting people post on this forum. took me a few minutes to read that last post.
: )

j/k by the way. i agree with him. you will learn a lot more a lot faster with a better foundation in japanese. i would recommend taking at least 2 years of japanese at a college level before coming to japan to study (unless you are enrolling in a japanese program in japan). Without enough of a solid base in japanese, you'll be so lost in all the conversations that you won't even really be able to pick out individual words when listening to japanese people speak...which makes it hard to improve.

I want to master the language as fast as i could.Obviously, i'm not going there to learn for fun.I'm looking for jobs such as translator,tour guide or in japanese firms.At the moment,i'm having frequent conversations with my japanese friends.Yes and i can agree with you that it's difficult catch every word they said.However, this will not deminish my passion.Learning it back home is really slow and tedious since very few people can speak japanese.I'm aware of the slangs so i'm looking for prefectures where standard japanese is spoken to ease the difficulty.Studying in japan is expensive but i think it's worth every buck.Please advise!

Some good sites that show some useful info on living in Japan are at

Price Check Tokyo
http://www.pricechecktokyo.com
[Really prices for all Japan, for a lot of items]

Japan FAQ
http://www.thejapanfaq.com

Language schools can be extremely high. Some are really money making rackets that charge an arm and a leg for Chinese and Koreans, since they can make a lot more money than working
back home.

Thanks.I had browsed through those websites before.But it does not seem to display sufficient information.Anyway,i doubt i will head for tokyo.I'm considering places in Yokohama,Nagoya,Sendai or Toyama.What language schools would you recommand?

Just another question, how high is the possibility of getting a job in japan after that?

PS: Hey Geri! It's nice to have fellow countrymate around.What's your email? Maybe i could seek some advise from you :)

I personally am an American looking to go over to Japan to teach and found this discussion while trying to research expenses that I would encounter living in Japan. From the vast majority of websites that I have read through, almost all of which were targeted to students, the consensus was between 1,200,000 Japanese yen and 1,800,000 yen per year as a reasonable expected living expense.
If anyone has some more helpful figures I would still like to see them.

Almost all of the figures I have found assume that I will be trying to live a western lifestyle in Japan and that I am interested in eating at McDonalds or drinking Starbucks. Even then the prices aren't that different from what they are over here, but if I wanted that life style I wouldn't be looking to live in Japan for a few years.

Hi Scott

Those figures to me are more for a semi japanese lifestyle rather than just western. Its very comfortable to live like that.

Hi I m from India and coming to Japan(osaka) next summer for 3 months with 80k yen per month(excluding lodging).Will it be sufficient for expenses and can i save some money.

If you are earning only 80,000yen/month, that will only just be enough to cover rent on an apartment....
For an apartment for only three months, you may need to stay in a hotel or in apartments rented by the month, which are more expensive.

Ramesh says the 80k excludes lodging. So that amount is just for living expenses. Still I must say that is still tight, for food, transportation, daily commodities, and maybe telephone and things like that? Maybe it's OK if you have a place where you can cook at home, no commuting required, no entertainment, but I would not expect to make any big savings.