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pragmatic wrote:Japan`s economy continues to sink as the national deficit pushes 250% of GDP. This not only devlaues the yen, but also increases everyone`s taxes. Japan is boasting that the decreasing value of the yen will make exports cheaper, which is true. However, the part they don`t tell you is that it makes imports more expensive, so expect to pay more for your gas, gasoline, groceries and your other favorite products. Gasonline is up 20% + since last year alone as the sinking yen continues to make domestic cost of living more expensive. My gas bill has jumped similiarly despite my efforts to be economical.
People are coming over here and looking for jobs. However, with the growing number of foreigners living in Japan, it puts A LOT OF DOWNWARD PRESSURE ON SALARIES since the growing number of foreigners gives companies NO INCENTIVE to raise salaries.
If you look at you leading Eikaiwa companies, salaries have not gone up since some of them have been open. After all, why should they? Young and dumb 20 somethings continue to chase after these jobs that have SALARIES YOU CAN BARELY SURVIVE ON. Falling salaries and rising living costs means the longer you live here the less money you are able save or make. I take that back. Forget about saving money, be thankful you can survive.
Let`s look at one example (this is from an acquaintance):
After tax salary 170000 yen
Rent: 60000 Yen
utilities 15000 Yen
Food 40000 Yen (unless you play on surviving on cup ramen noodles only)
NHI: 30000 Yen
Misc 20000 Yen
Not much left right?
Those people who are considering coming here to teach English, I seriously reccommend to reconsider. However, the choice is yours.
wangta wrote:Does anybody else think that in terms of accommodation fees (key money, 'gift' money etc), food, phones and internet Japan has actually got cheaper than was the case from the 1990s thru to around 2007 or so? I haven't worked in Japan for a while but this idea that your salary goes less far seems misguided judging from how bloody expensive essentials were back when I was there.
wangta wrote:I'm interested in hearing about how the income tax-city tax changes walloped people's disposable income. I hear that taxes are far more expensive, others say they're paying about the same or more but not too much - it's just that the collection methods have changed. What about it? Pragmatic? Others?
yanpa wrote:
Prices in general certainly don't seem to have gone up noticeably since I was first here in the mid 90's, for small items many prices are identical. There was a brief burst of price inflation in 2008 during the oil price shock, but I think that was pretty much stopped by the sudden rise of the yen, on the whole prices are stable. There may have been some hidden inflation in the form of packaging getting smaller, e.g. the 1 litre tetrapacks of juice in the 100yen Lawson store shrank to 900ml at some point.
pragmatic wrote:Japan`s economy continues to sink as the national deficit pushes 250% of GDP. This not only devlaues the yen, but also increases everyone`s taxes. Japan is boasting that the decreasing value of the yen will make exports cheaper, which is true. However, the part they don`t tell you is that it makes imports more expensive, so expect to pay more for your gas, gasoline, groceries and your other favorite products. Gasonline is up 20% + since last year alone as the sinking yen continues to make domestic cost of living more expensive. My gas bill has jumped similiarly despite my efforts to be economical.
People are coming over here and looking for jobs. However, with the growing number of foreigners living in Japan, it puts A LOT OF DOWNWARD PRESSURE ON SALARIES since the growing number of foreigners gives companies NO INCENTIVE to raise salaries.
If you look at you leading Eikaiwa companies, salaries have not gone up since some of them have been open. After all, why should they? Young and dumb 20 somethings continue to chase after these jobs that have SALARIES YOU CAN BARELY SURVIVE ON. Falling salaries and rising living costs means the longer you live here the less money you are able save or make. I take that back. Forget about saving money, be thankful you can survive.
Let`s look at one example (this is from an acquaintance):
After tax salary 170000 yen
Rent: 60000 Yen
utilities 15000 Yen
Food 40000 Yen (unless you play on surviving on cup ramen noodles only)
NHI: 30000 Yen
Misc 20000 Yen
Not much left right?
Those people who are considering coming here to teach English, I seriously reccommend to reconsider. However, the choice is yours.
Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:Tremendous post!
wangta wrote:I'm interested in hearing about how the income tax-city tax changes walloped people's disposable income. I hear that taxes are far more expensive, others say they're paying about the same or more but not too much - it's just that the collection methods have changed. What about it? Pragmatic? Others?
nikoneko wrote:WTF at ¥40000 for food for a single person? I can easily feed my family of 3 well and healthily for less than that. Maybe learn to cook? Anyway that is all I really took from this thread other than that yes.. tremendous post!
chokonen888 wrote:40,000 a month for food high? I can spend that in a week...if I eat out. I'm still not content with my freezer though, WTF is up with the size of Japanese freezers??
...making more COSTCO trips because of it!
GomiGirl wrote:chokonen888 wrote:40,000 a month for food high? I can spend that in a week...if I eat out. I'm still not content with my freezer though, WTF is up with the size of Japanese freezers??
...making more COSTCO trips because of it!
Buy yourself a freezer from Costco - they have some neat little upright ones that could store half a cow in them if you so desired. Pretty cheap if I recall.
What is a single guy like you buying up big from Costco anyway? Feeding your hockey team?
Yokohammer wrote:Are people reading that as 400,000 or something?
It's 40,000, right? That's not even 450 yen per meal for a month:
450 yen x 3 = 1,350 per day.
1,350 per day x 30 days = 40,500.
Good luck with that.
nikoneko wrote:Yokohammer wrote:Are people reading that as 400,000 or something?
It's 40,000, right? That's not even 450 yen per meal for a month:
450 yen x 3 = 1,350 per day.
1,350 per day x 30 days = 40,500.
Good luck with that.
I asked my wife if I was crazy for saying that food cost was high and she nearly flipped out in that Japanese frugal wife kind of way and started to blame things on me, like just mentioning the question and saying "this sounds really high to me" was somehow completely my fault even though I agreed it was a lot of money to spend from the beginning. Reined in though lol, she made a great point, the average Japanese salary is somewhere in the 20-30 man range per month. How is it possible then to feed a family of four if ¥40000 a month for one person is average? It's just way way too high.
And no I don't eat tofu and crap all day. I got to thinking how much a big plate of lasagna and a nice salad would cost here and I think if done right it comes less to ¥400 a meal for the entire family.
GomiGirl wrote:We spend about 20-30man a month for our family of 3 (well 2.5).
yanpa wrote:GomiGirl wrote:We spend about 20-30man a month for our family of 3 (well 2.5).
That's impressive Are you sure there's not an extra zero in there, or do you really spend an average monthly salary on food?
Yokohammer wrote:I assume you're not including meals eaten out in that.
If you cook and eat every single meal, three meals a day, at home, I can see it, but those lunches and dinners eaten out need to be included for a true picture of monthly food costs.
Yokohammer wrote:Also depends on whether you consider booze a "food."
GomiGirl wrote:Sadly, I am such a lightweight these days...
IparryU wrote:GomiGirl wrote:Sadly, I am such a lightweight these days...
you should be happy... you get drunk for cheap!
wangta wrote:Does anybody know these days what is the minimum length of time you can spend at an eikaiwa and then give notice w/out Immigration thwarting you and listening to a nasty boss?
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