What does it cost to live in Japan? Having spent 8 weeks living it up in Japan in 2014, I’m going to share with you exactly how expensive Japan is. We always read that Japan is expensive and the cost of living in cities like Osaka and Tokyo are high. Now that we have actually experienced living in Japan we can share our odyssey expenses with you.

What does it cost to spend 8 weeks living in Japan? I’m positive that our time in Japan was not the same as many will get to experience, but still it will give you an idea of what it might cost depending on what you’d like to do.

Let me explain what we include in the groups.

If you’re new to our “what does it cost to” posts then let me explain how we calculate things.

Food which includes all shopping for home. Eating out with all beverages, coffee etc. Transport includes trains, planes, cruises and everything in between, also fuel, taxis etc all whilst in that place. Entrance and souvenirs is exactly that, all entrances and any souvenir, tours etc. Other includes things like postage, washing, personal items like clothing (jeans, shoes, cosmetics etc) All costs outside of each place are listed separately, eg the cruise to get to Japan is not included in this cost of living.

• FOOD;  54883 YEN   $546.22 AUD

• EATING OUT; 244678 YEN   $2596.46 AUD  (we ate out a lot)

• TRANSPORT; 80698 YEN   $850.21 AUD   ( Subway, bus etc DOES NOT INCLUDE SHINKANSEN)

• ENTRANCE / SOUVENIR; 49691 YEN   $522.83 AUD   (Castles, Miyako Odori etc)

• OTHER; 106085 YEN   $1113.87 AUD

• ACCOMMODATION; 230231 YEN   $2425.44   (AirBnB, Ryokan, Capsule hotel etc)

We had also a Train pass called the JR pass, which allowed us to travel on the Shinkansen for 4 weeks out of the 8 we were there. This pass MUST be purchased outside of Japan.

• JR PASS $1880.00 AUD

I also purchased tickets to the Sumo tournament in Osaka while in Australia as they sell out quick and I wanted to go.

• SUMO TICKETS $135.03 AUD

The total spend for the 55 days

The total spend for the 55 days in Japanese YEN was 766266

Which equates to 13932 YEN per day

And 6966 YEN per person per day

The figures in Australian dollars are

The total was $10,068.20

Which equates to $183.06 per day

And $91.53 per person per day

The figures above give you an idea of what it would cost to visit and stay for sometime in Japan. Sure enough you may not do exactly what we did, but you’ll get a general idea of what things cost.

I’m sure that you could probably save on some of the ‘eating out’ category as we had the great pleasure in having Japanese friends take us to some of the top places during our stay which had a rather large price tag, not your everyday sushi train experience.

So there you have it, the breakdown of our cost of living in Japan for our 55 day stay.