Moving Back: State of Your Local Economy in Japan

[pheyton]

My family, wife and our 2 young children, are planning on moving back to Japan. We have 2 automatic places to go, her parents in Kazuno, Akita or Hachioji, Tokyo where I can work, eat great food and enjoy being spoiled, with her aunt & uncle.

Besides those places, I kind of wanted to get a feel for the economies in other mid sized cities around Japan. I've heard a lot of stories about how dreadful the economy has become, especially in my wife's hometown. So do any of you have serious analysis of your local economy? Or all we all just fucked?

[Mulboyne]

The economic recovery at the national level largely passed the regional economies by. The pick up in activity was confined to the main metropolitan areas around Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya which is reflected in the population concentration in those three areas. Some of the other cities have fared reasonably well, however. Fukuoka, for instance, has benefited from its proximity to Korea, China and Taiwan and friends who live there tell me it has great night life.

[bolt_krank]

Hachioji isn't that bad. I used to work in Suginami, and managed about 1 hour each way to and from work, which I think it's comparatively good.
Of course it's good to look around, but I think you'll find a lot of the jobs in mult-nationals will be in Tokyo. Of course - they'll be others elsewhere, just not similar numbers.