In the monthly budget of Japan Life Hub, a studio flat in many cities cost almost as much as in Tokyo, and in three it cost more. Kumamoto showed 90,000 yen a month, Sagamihara 120,000. Those rents were guesses.
Rents from the survey
The cost of living page now takes rents from the Retail Price Survey of the Statistics Bureau of Japan. The survey measures the average private rent per 3.3 m² in each prefectural capital and in other large cities. A studio in Tokyo's 23 wards stays at 100,000 yen, and every other city is scaled by its survey figure. A studio in Kumamoto is now 39,000 yen, and a month there for one person with a moderate lifestyle comes to 138,900 yen instead of 189,900. Fourteen cities are not in the survey. They use a nearby city's figure, and the page says which.
What your pay leaves
Type your monthly take-home pay and the page shows what is left after rent, food, bills and transport, and what part of your pay that is. With 230,000 yen in Kumamoto, 91,100 is left. You can type your own rent too. This part used to need a subscription, and it is free now. In the net salary calculator, the link to the budget opens it with your take-home pay filled in.
All cities side by side
Under the result, a table lists all 78 cities for the household and flat you chose: rent, everything else, the total and the difference from Tokyo. Choose a city in it to see its breakdown.
The page works in the seven languages of the Hub. Its figures now come with the page itself, so they show before the scripts load.
