I'm just curious honestly, it's also what I aspire to earn in the future. So don't take this too seriously, I'm just curious about what career do you have and how much years of experience 😄

The intervention only lasted about a month, and now we're back around the 160 level again.

For those who are currently planning to move to Japan or start a new life there, what are your thoughts on the current situation?

Has the weak yen changed your plans at all, or are you still moving forward with it?

Hi all,

I was recently offered a position at a prestigious research center in Tokyo and I’m considering moving. My net (not gross) salary would be 370k yen per month. I know there’s been some inflation recently in Japan and things are not as cheap as they used to be.

What is rent in a place like Ikebukuro for a single person? How do you guys think I would do with this amount of money overall?

Thank you! :)

EDIT: I do not have an expensive lifestyle and I’m relatively frugal by nature. I do like going out for dinner but that’s more affordable in Japan than where I’m from. Other than that, I do the usual stuff, don’t have expensive hobbies.

EDIT2: I’m single, early 30s.

EDIT3: Tax deductions in my case are bit complicated but it would be around 470k gross per month if it helps.

You guys are being extremely helpful! Thank you!!

Hypothetical question for people living in Japan.

Let’s say you had investments or rental income or any sort of passive income that produced about ¥6–8M, fairly reliably, without needing active work. Assuming you live in a major city like Tokyo or Osaka and have a pretty normal lifestyle, would you still work?

If yes, would you work full-time? Part-time? Only take interesting work/projects? I’m curious where people’s “enough” point is in Japan.

Per title. Says this currency last issued in the 90s

Reading the comments on this subreddit has got me thinking.
I dont have stocks invested, Im not a 20M finance/tech bro and I dont have rich parents. It seems many people here have some sort of luxury salary and I want to know how I can get something myself.

(I know the odds are stacked against me)

As background I am working as an Assistant language teacher early 30s, im working towards the goal of N2 (in 2 years), I am not a US citizen who studied at Harvard and I have a degree in graphic design.

If you were in my shoes and willing to pivot to something else in the coming years, what would you do?

Most of you on here are probably too rich to care, but from 1pm today all Tokyo residents are eligible for a 11,000 yen giveaway in points (which can be exchanged for Rakuten points, V points, D points, etc).

You need the Tokyo app and a My Number card.

For maximum poikatsu, combine with the D-Point 10% up promotion (running until March 31st), for 12,100 points. That can almost buy a bag of rice these days!

I've been in Japan a long time and thankfully have finished the lion's share of saving for retirement. But I'm likely to spend part of my retirement in the US, and the yen's slide is affecting what I can add to my retirement investments in USD terms.

At 1USD=200JPY I would put a lot of time and effort into orienting my business more toward USD revenue streams. Already working on this now. Not sure too much else would change, but if I couldn't get enough USD revenue or otherwise grow my income, I would have to at least consider other job opportunities. Lately, earning mostly in JPY has felt a lot like running uphill.

This is probably a dumb question but based off posts I've seen online an apartment rent of 10万/month is too much on a 30万/month budget, but I've also seen that when renting you should expect rent to take up about a third of your income, so why is this too big a portion to spend on rent? Possibly moving for work and trying to figure out how I should budget my rent as a homebody who really values having personal space. Not the most financially literate so kindness and patience appreciated!

EDIT: This post blew up a lot more than I expected 😅 But the TL;DR seems to be, for anyone seeing this later: if the 300,000 is gross then 100,000 is way too much, but if the 300,000 is your net take-home pay then 100,000 is a rent cap you can work with. Thank you to everyone for the responses!

Japanese wife (49) and US me (55) are considering FIREing in Miyazaki, Kyushu in the near future. Dual income working in Tokyo now but looking to quit full-time work and just enjoy life where my wife is from. I have PR btw.

We have no kids. We own a small mansion in Yokohama but have closed the sale on it and will move to a rental. We'd look to buy a mansion down in Kyushu on a mortgage -- and it looks like 25-30M is completely fine for size/location/age based on listings.

Quick overview of finances

Assets:

- 150M in US stocks (admittedly weighted to semis but plan to spread more to ETFs) and her 新NISA (1-2 yrs from max). And yes, I do realize withdrawing from the stocks will incur 20% Japanese tax. EDIT: A weakness here besides the lack of diversification is that these stocks were mostly from when the rate was 110usd/jpy so the value grows the weaker the yen gets but conversely, a stronger yen will decrease total value (in jpy).

- 20M in cash

Expenses:

- About 400k/month, but I suspect it'll be slightly less in Kyushu

- Will take on a mortgage but that's factored in the item above. No other debts.

Income:

- We'd do part-time work with a combined income of 3M (haven't looked too hard into this but maybe 20-30 hrs/week but would stop if assets appreciate considerably)

I saw the thread below from 2-3 years ago positing some numbers required -- leanFIRE (66M), FIRE (100M), fatFIRE (300M) with the caveat that those are general numbers and ymmv.

https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/comments/1gfkjg5/defining_leanfire_fire_chubbyfire_fatfire_amounts/

I'm using a 3% safe withdraw rate in my headmath. It seems like we should be in the clear. Of course, a market downturn could sour those plans. Pension will start at 65 but that'll be about 2M combined. All in all, this FIRE plan feels secure but I see such a large range of numbers that people state for themselves and sure, I mean, everyone has different expenses and needs. I want to make sure I'm not overlooking something.

If any of you would like to share your insights, we'd really appreciate it!!

I don't know if this is the best lace to ask but I will give it a shot.

Looking at the current exchange rate of JPY to EUR, SEK and USD every day is the same it just gets worse and worse. Is Japan actually doing anything to change this or will increasing interest rates the only option left?

I'm thinking the the buying power of the Japanese people and me will only get lower and lower, goods become more expensive, interest rates going up. For us living here it looks bleek.

Happy week-end everyone.

The Friday poll tradition zombie is back.

Political climate regarding foreigners has been a hot topic this year, ranging from 'harmoniously coexisting' to a 'problem' in need of fixing, along with reminders that foreigners must pay for welfare but cannot receive it, overall worsening acceptance in the public, and much tighter rules to get or maintain PR.

Does the political climate have influenced changes in your own personal finance strategy ?

You may need higher income to qualify for PR down the road, rethink your retirement target to be able to also retire abroad, or simply see your ability to stay in the country challenged.

Please pick the option that represents the largest personal impact from your perspective.

I came to Japan right at the start of the pandemic, back then I was younger and was mostly just excited to be living here and hadn't exactly done my homework on the financial outlook here.

As the years have gone on and I've gotten a bit older I've started to seriously consider the future of my personal finance and professional life and the situation just seems kind of bleak in Japan.

Historically terrible JPY (yes it could change, but it hasn't at least so far), lower salaries across the board in every industry, the fact that investing is so difficult for U.S. citizens here.

Am I being too pessimistic? As a young adult with an entire career still ahead of me I just feel I'm taking the short end of the stick by choosing to stay.

I guess the big question is whether Japan's cheaper CoL and more stable social and political cohesion is worth it in the long run vs. America. As much as I've soured on my personal financial outlook in Japan, I still have grave concerns bout the longterm political, economic and social health of the U.S.

Kumamoto Middle School in the 1890s paid the English teacher Lafcadio Hearn (who had never been to university, spoke hardly any Japanese, and lacked any English teaching qualifications) a salary of 200 yen per month - roughly 96 million yen yearly in today's terms.

Within 3 years, he had managed to save up 4,000 yen - equivalent to 160 million yen now.

Yes, of course there are all kinds of issues with calculating "today's equivalent" in yen. But it was still a massively higher salary than nearly all Japanese earned.

If we assume that today's English teachers get about 3 million yen, we can see that the economic value of an English teacher has declined by 32x in 140 years.

(Source: President Online)

https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/30825885/

This month Salary ¥150,000

Bills:

Share of household expenses ¥60,000 (rent, utilities, and daily necessities)

Phone Bill ¥30,000 (Used Phone for payments sometimes)

Prepaid Card ¥17,000

Loan ¥13,000

Car Insurance ¥3,000

Borrowed Money ¥30,000

So, tired ofevery month

its extra stressful this month cause of the low salary

I’d love to hear your advices on how to handle this

its a shame that ive been working in this kaisha for 2years and still cant manage my monthly salary

*My usual salary is ¥150,000~210,000

Just curious if anyone here moved after they FI’d?

I recently got an offer to join a tech company in Tokyo for a total compensation package of ¥15m as an engineer.

I was very lucky with my investments and aggressive savings so my NW is about $4m. It’s certainly a lot here (SF) and I’m assuming it’s basically full financial independence in Tokyo?

The job would be more of a change of scenery type of move for me but yeah I was wondering if any of you are in a similar situation?

I’m a 31 year old single male. Incidentally my biggest concern is actually finding a partner lol, I heard dating is hard in Japan if you don’t speak Japanese?

I don't even know what to say... I'm supposedly a high earner in Japan (~20m yen per year +/- 2m) but it's fucking depressing converting it into USD. I used to owe US taxes but on the bright side I'm too fucking poor to owe any taxes now.

If I didn't have my US equities (worked at Apple and Meta for 9 years before moving here) I don't know what I'd do.

Everyday this shit keeps tanking makes me really reconsider moving back to the US. I came here for the lifestyle but it also feels like I'm actively screwing my own future if I choose to stay in Japan. The government is run by far right imbeciles who are hell bent on screwing the economy even further by spreading foreigner FUD. Mangolini is a moron but the US economy is just so much stronger overall so even his bs can't tank the entire country unlike here where it's just a lot more fragile and dependent on external factors.

I know some of you are Japan lifers which I think is fine but for those of you who don't plan to stay here forever, what are you guys thinking?

I've calculated how much I would make this year (from January to December). I'm shocked that it didn't even reach 3M yen. I googled the average income in Japan, and it's 6.2M yen. A "livable wage" in Japan (based on my research) is 400,000 yen, and that's half of what I'm making. But for some reason, I don't feel that poor. I'm not materialistic, nor do I travel often. I also live with a partner that pays half of everything (bills and rent). It got me curious how others are doing. Do most of you earn the "average" income of 6.2M or above? Do some of you earn a crappy salary like me? If so, how are you doing?

Edit*

Sorry, I didn't include necessary information about me.

I'm 26 years old.

I live in a suburb.

I don't have kids yet.

Cheers all

As the year is closing, it is time to look at the year and consolidating statements. How has it been for you ? I guess pretty good for most who have been invested.

So where are you in your FIRE journey, whatever it looks like to you ? What went well for you, what will you change next year ?

I'll throw in mine (throw-away powered) :

Profile : F mid40s, privileged (no education debt, inheritance), good health, PR, solid career in US multinational (not IT guys, manufacturing !), ok work/life balance, salary ~15-20M/year depend on bonus, single, 3 lovely daughters (non-luxury intl school then university in EU), renting, no debt, have been working and saving for more than two decades, use furusato/DC/NISA.

Total NW went from 160M (980k eur) end of 2024 to 213M (1160k eur) end of this year, so +54M (+180k eur)

• Japan / invested : 60M > 70M this year (mostly MSCI World, +19% this year in JPY) (includes 18M in NISAs/DC)
• Japan / cash-like : 12M > 16M (emergency fund + long term kids education)
• Home country / physical gold (inherited) : 25k eur > 35k eur (sold some but gold went like +50%)
• Home country / invested (mostly inherited) : 500k eur > 630k eur (MSCI world +7.5% this year in EUR, rest is additional inheritance)
• Overall 87% MSCI, 3% gold, 10% cash-equivalent

The huge leap in NW this year is mostly thanks to new inheritance (~80k eur out of the +180k eur total variation) & high market perf (~95k eur out of the +180k eur), and of course the massively dropping FX for the JPY part.

My kids costs mean my own salary mostly evaporates and does not contributes than much anymore to savings but covers more than our living expenses.

Financial goals : I am trying to reach in the range 2-2.5m eur to cover for :

• My own retirement 1-1.5m eur invested, so I can draw 40-60k eur/year in EU (I have very little pension rights)
• Kids future education needs : current value is ~650k eur
• Buying house ~80M (will take loan)

Overall for 2025 I feel extremely lucky to be well on track and should be able to pay for my kids university and not be a burden on them or society in my old age.

In 2026 I want to better invest the kids fund, and keep selling the gold.

What larger economic effects do the rising interest rates actually have? What would be some good resources to look into this from a historical perspective? Are there podcasts that discuss this subject (and others like it) from a japanese perspective, in english?

I invest into stocks regularly while keeping a reasonable buffer in my bank as cold cash.

Of course bigger interest would mean trouble to homeowners with a large lease, but as I do not have one, what could be negative or positive effects of this situation? Either from a larger macroenomic situation or smaller-scale effects. Loan money becoming more expensive for companies might reduce their willigness to invest, but I wonder if that would actually have a big effect on a normal 正社員. Apartment prices might also cool off for a bit since the calculus to buying one might not look as attractive for normal people who do need a large mortage.

What other effects should one be on the lookout for?

I’m looking for some advice on saving money.
I live around the Musashino/Mitaka area of Tokyo and take home about ¥190,000 a month after taxes. I know that’s on the lower side for Tokyo, but I work around 30 hours a week, but I’m not a full-time employee (正社員)

My monthly fixed expenses are roughly:
Rent: ¥55,000
Utilities: around ¥15,000
Phone: around ¥8,000
After paying for food, transportation, and other day-to-day expenses, I usually have around ¥50,000–60,000 left each month.

I’m interested in hearing how others in a similar situation approach saving, budgeting, or investing in Japan. What strategies have worked well for you?

I'm turning 35 later this year and I'm planning to quit my job in two weeks and go to Tokyo, Japan to live for 1-2 years. I figure life is a gift and it's time for me to go experience life and find back the old me who used to smile and enjoy life alot more.

Personal Situation:

• 34M, Asian, living in VHCOL, working as a software engineer
• Not married, no kids
• In long distance relationship with girlfriend who currently lives in Tokyo

Finance:

• Networth: $1.25M; 1.1M of it is liquid, mainly invested in index funds.
• Debt: 23K on my car
• No house
• Based on 4% rule, this would give me around 40k/year, which should be enough for Japan based on the posts I have read.

Plan in Japan

• Find a language school, which costs around $6000 a year. Wish to become conversational in Japanese.
• Initially live with girlfriend in Tokyo, then maybe find my own place if we find it too crowded.
• Do lots of exercise, reading, making friend.
• Maybe do some odd jobs (Izakaya, convenience store) just for the experience and for japanese learning
• Travel around Asian (China, Taiwan, Korea, SE Asian) while I'm in Japan

Longer term plan: Not sure to be honest. After 1-2 years of language school, I need to decide on several things:

• Whether I want to live in Japan for the long term
• Whether I want to go back to work
• Whether 40k/year is enough for me, or should I increase my networth

Technically this was published in September 24th, but since they only agreed to a coalition this week, I thought this document carried more weight. Translations below.

Tldr : It doesn't look like they will put harsh restrictions on homes that will be used and lived in.

EDIT : Today, Ishin's co-leader Fujita did an interview on ReHaq YT channel and clarified that he has since done more research since this proposal was written. He argues that an empty room tax (condos) and additional stamp duty on non-resident buyers is the way to go - not any sort of bans.

Excerpt :

我が国においても、外国人・外国資本による土地等の取得について、国土の総合的な安全保障の確保を図るため、対日外国投資委員会を創設し、事前の許可制を導入した上で、安全保障上重要な区域における土地等の取引の審査・規制を実施するべきである。具体的には、防衛施設周辺、国境離島、原子力発所等の重要インフラ周辺、森林・農地、港湾・空港周辺など、より広範な区域を対象とし、外国人・外国資本による土地等の取得に対して事前審査を行い、取引内容の変更・不許可とすることができるとともに、取得後の利用・管理について、利用方法の変更・中止の勧告・命令ができる制度を構築するべきである。

また、既に外国人・外国資本が取得している安全保障上重要な土地等については、その利用実態を継続的に監視し、必要に応じて国による買取りや収用を可能とする制度も整備することが、国土を守るために必領である。これにより、国家安全保障と地域社会の保全を確保することを提言する。そのうえで、相互主義の観点から、日本人が土地を取得できない国の国民による日本国内での土地取得は原則として認めないこととするべきである。都市部の投機的取得についても、居住実態のない外国人による不動産取得に対しては、シンガポール型の追加印紙税制度の導入や固定資産税の適正化など、WTO・GATS （サービスの貿易に関する一般協定）等の国際協定との整合性を確保しつつ、税制面での対応を検討するべきである。

Translations:

In Japan as well, to ensure comprehensive national security regarding the acquisition of land and other assets by foreign nationals and foreign capital, a Foreign Investment Committee should be established. This committee should implement a prior approval system and conduct reviews and regulations of land transactions in areas critical to national security. Specifically, a system should be established covering broader areas such as the vicinity of defense facilities, remote border islands, areas surrounding critical infrastructure like nuclear power plants, forests and farmland, and areas near ports and airports. This system should enable prior screening of land acquisitions by foreign nationals and foreign capital, allowing for changes to transaction details or denial of permits. Furthermore, it should permit recommendations or orders to change or cease usage methods regarding post-acquisition utilization and management.

Furthermore, for land and other assets already acquired by foreign nationals or foreign capital that are critical to national security, it is essential to establish a system for continuously monitoring their actual use and, when necessary, enabling the state to purchase or expropriate them to protect the national territory. This is proposed to ensure both national security and the preservation of local communities. Based on this, from the perspective of reciprocity, land acquisition in Japan by nationals of countries where Japanese citizens cannot acquire land should, in principle, not be permitted. Regarding speculative acquisitions in urban areas, measures should be considered on the tax front—such as introducing a Singapore-style additional stamp duty system and optimizing property taxes—for real estate acquisitions by foreigners without actual residency. These measures should be implemented while ensuring consistency with international agreements like the WTO and GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services).

I don't know if reciprocity policy is even legal under WTO/GATS. But they will try I guess. There are only a few countries where this might be affected - namely China, Thailand, etc.

They seem to be considering a resident/non-resident stamp duty. Which is the most realistic to be implemented.

I do wonder how this would affect the Chinese nationals living in Japan. They are the largest foreign minority in Japan - and if you ban all of them from ever owning land, then I'd imagine it would become more of an incentive to naturalize to Japan or move elsewhere.

I have no idea about the cost of living in Tokyo please give your perspective.

Hello,

I'm living in Japan as a freelancer. The main currency I own and earn is yen. However, sometimes I also earn euros and dollars. I used to change them in JPY, but maybe this is not really clever. I'm thinking of keeping euros, mainly as a mean to visit my own country.

For now, I'm stocking them in Wise, but that might not be...wise? (pun intended) I also own a N26 account, which might be better, but maybe not the best. So thinking about a solution to make this as efficient as possible.

Thank you!