The market has bottomed out, somewhat...especially the higher you go. The expat banker type flat has dropped a good 1/3 in the last 5 years (and will likely not go up). Cheaper apartments as well, a lot cheaper. Until recently, you also had "key money" (google), and still have 2 months deposit, plus 1 month you have to pay for the locator. These days you're looking at 4 months up front (w/ not all coming back) to move. It used to be 6.sven666 wrote: i always found this strange, as a tourist tokyo can be very cheap and last time i was over i was checking out alot of appartments and stuff and renting a small appartment still fairly central didnt seem that expensive to me, its about on par with the appartments here in gothenburg.
Very generally speaking, graduates in Tokyo start out at somewhere around 220,000 yen per month, and will make an extra 10,000 yen per month from there. There's a bonus twice a year which is probably to the tune of 400,000 to 600,000 (closer to 400,000 these days). Note that the hours are grueling, so there's little time for extra income.maybe the difference is in the wages? what does an average joe schmoe driving a forklift at some warehouse earn in japan?
I don't know what minimum wage is, but hourly jobs tend to pay about 800 - 900 yen per hour, unless of course you're sucking cock. Relatively speaking, I think those girls make very little money when you consider they take a shot in the mouth from most likely an unsavory old chap a few times an hour.
The further from Tokyo the cheaper (until you hit ski resort areas).... or Osaka.Any areas specifically, and generally how removed/rural is this "countryside" land?
I saw today that McDonalds is hiring for 900 yen an hour now, when this time last year the jobs started at 1200 yen an hour. Also something I've noticed lately are that there are a LOT of empty apartments lately. Not sure if people are moving back in with their parents, or going back out to the countryside, but there are noticeably more vacancies. It seems that not many people have much of a disposable income lately. Its been really great for me that the yen has dropped to 85 yen to the dollar, but terrible for everyone else. However, with all of this being said, it's odd to see that theres still so much construction going on... New buildings and remodels seem to be going on everywhere. Perhaps the government is trying to stimulate the economy with a construction boom...?