$3000 USD is a nice cushion to have. Anything around that number would be ideal IMO.
I would say 1000-1500 USD. This gives some money to last until your first paycheck.
Honestly, bring as much as you can. If you need to buy a car, you need to cover the first and last months’ rent, damage deposit and key money it could be a few thousand. Also, you may not have anything in your apartment, so you need to consider that too.
i brought 2500 usd this past year and got by with that. I would aim for over 2000 but obv as much as u can
This is the lowest I’ve seen people say. Everyone else that I’ve seen has said at least 3000
I recommend contacting your predecessor when you get a chance. Because ESID you could be buying their vehicle for cheap. My neighbors bought their predecessor‘s old kei cars for ~450-900 USD each.
Your living situation may or may not require a deposit.
Those are the big ones I can think of.
I’m my prefecture our predecessors were suppose to inform us about these things. I think most prefectures do.
If you’re coming to Tokyo, expect to pay a ton upfront for housing costs. Most people here get hit with like 3600$ Canadian just for signing an apartment.
Definitely ESID like I saved a bunch like 3-4K USD and I got here and didn’t need to use almost anything for housing / car. But if you get like Tokyo I think like 3K, ideally 4K minimum from what I’ve heard. Because you also have daily living expenses (3-4 weeks of it) before you get your first pay check which like 3-4 weeks after arrive. Starts out more expensive with food until you get cooking appliances and cook wear or youre just eating conbini food (Inaka might not have one) / instant noodles. Also some people like supervisor/JTE/ whoever might want to grab lunch when you arrive (at least they did in my case). so these are all things to consider.
The day I arrived in my town, I had to pay ¥250’000 ($2500 in my home currency) just to get the keys to my empty apartment. I then needed to furnish it and survive until my first paycheque (which was a half month, since we arrived in the last half of August).
Basically bring as much as possible. No one has ever complained about having too much money.
Definitely ESID depending on placement since different costs of living and COs covering varying things.
However, would recommended 3000 USD minimum. I came in with 4000USD, had to completely furnish my empty apartment including appliances. Still had roughly 1500USD afterwards but that’s because I was being frugal and I didn’t have any expensive key fees to pay. Continued slowly furnishing as the months went on though.
Best to be safe though, since things may come up.
ESID but having more is better than less. Depending on your Contracting Organization, you might not get paid your August wages until middle of September. Buying things from your predecessor might be an option, but I don’t recommend it at all. You can also get things from secondhand shops. I do wish I was able to save/bring more to things new(er) because getting ripped off by predecessors and having to waste time and money to dispose of the junk predecessors left isn’t fun at all. Again ESID.
Generally speaking you will know better once you have your placement. Tokyo>>>other cities>inaka cities>straight up inaka (ESID etc etc). 3K is a good ballpark number and what I came in with. My replacement will probably be fine with 1k and only need to buy linens and foodstuffs. It can vary even within a city, though – another prefectural down the street’s replacement will probably need the whole 3k (no car waiting, no furniture, key money + 1st month’s rent due immediately).
Upfront costs and also fees upon arrival brought me to about 2k USD. I didn’t buy a car because I could not afford it and my apartment was fully furnished but I had to pay two months rent upfront and cover a lot of setting up bills. Just had a lot of fees that I wasn’t properly informed about before arriving and was blindsided when I arrived.
I am not from a wealthy family by any means and I ended up having to use my credit card a lot to pay for additional fees until my first month’s paycheque came through unfortunately. ESID but there is no situation where you should have very little when arriving. Save as much as you can before going.
I spent about 4000 dollars in start up costs, could be more or less depending on placement. To my understanding I’m at the higher end of it thougg
I came with about 750 US in 2004. My base school fronted me and I paid them back my first few checks. If you ain’t rich, don’t sweat it, but you should have enough tucked away to take care of yourself for a little bit.
Iirc I came with about 2000 USD in 2014 for a city placement (Kyoto). I didn’t have to buy a car, but our apartments were largely unfurnished, so I prioritized things like a bed and slowly added things like shelves in the coming months once I got paid. I also got a bicycle pretty early on, made life much easier.
I came with 8k and my husband came with around 6k. Most of it my money gone with start up costs, furniture, etc.
17 comments
$3000 USD is a nice cushion to have. Anything around that number would be ideal IMO.
I would say 1000-1500 USD. This gives some money to last until your first paycheck.
Honestly, bring as much as you can. If you need to buy a car, you need to cover the first and last months’ rent, damage deposit and key money it could be a few thousand. Also, you may not have anything in your apartment, so you need to consider that too.
i brought 2500 usd this past year and got by with that. I would aim for over 2000 but obv as much as u can
This is the lowest I’ve seen people say. Everyone else that I’ve seen has said at least 3000
I recommend contacting your predecessor when you get a chance. Because ESID you could be buying their vehicle for cheap. My neighbors bought their predecessor‘s old kei cars for ~450-900 USD each.
Your living situation may or may not require a deposit.
Those are the big ones I can think of.
I’m my prefecture our predecessors were suppose to inform us about these things. I think most prefectures do.
If you’re coming to Tokyo, expect to pay a ton upfront for housing costs. Most people here get hit with like 3600$ Canadian just for signing an apartment.
Definitely ESID like I saved a bunch like 3-4K USD and I got here and didn’t need to use almost anything for housing / car. But if you get like Tokyo I think like 3K, ideally 4K minimum from what I’ve heard. Because you also have daily living expenses (3-4 weeks of it) before you get your first pay check which like 3-4 weeks after arrive. Starts out more expensive with food until you get cooking appliances and cook wear or youre just eating conbini food (Inaka might not have one) / instant noodles. Also some people like supervisor/JTE/ whoever might want to grab lunch when you arrive (at least they did in my case). so these are all things to consider.
The day I arrived in my town, I had to pay ¥250’000 ($2500 in my home currency) just to get the keys to my empty apartment. I then needed to furnish it and survive until my first paycheque (which was a half month, since we arrived in the last half of August).
Basically bring as much as possible. No one has ever complained about having too much money.
Definitely ESID depending on placement since different costs of living and COs covering varying things.
However, would recommended 3000 USD minimum. I came in with 4000USD, had to completely furnish my empty apartment including appliances. Still had roughly 1500USD afterwards but that’s because I was being frugal and I didn’t have any expensive key fees to pay. Continued slowly furnishing as the months went on though.
Best to be safe though, since things may come up.
ESID but having more is better than less. Depending on your Contracting Organization, you might not get paid your August wages until middle of September. Buying things from your predecessor might be an option, but I don’t recommend it at all. You can also get things from secondhand shops. I do wish I was able to save/bring more to things new(er) because getting ripped off by predecessors and having to waste time and money to dispose of the junk predecessors left isn’t fun at all. Again ESID.
Generally speaking you will know better once you have your placement. Tokyo>>>other cities>inaka cities>straight up inaka (ESID etc etc). 3K is a good ballpark number and what I came in with. My replacement will probably be fine with 1k and only need to buy linens and foodstuffs. It can vary even within a city, though – another prefectural down the street’s replacement will probably need the whole 3k (no car waiting, no furniture, key money + 1st month’s rent due immediately).
Upfront costs and also fees upon arrival brought me to about 2k USD. I didn’t buy a car because I could not afford it and my apartment was fully furnished but I had to pay two months rent upfront and cover a lot of setting up bills. Just had a lot of fees that I wasn’t properly informed about before arriving and was blindsided when I arrived.
I am not from a wealthy family by any means and I ended up having to use my credit card a lot to pay for additional fees until my first month’s paycheque came through unfortunately. ESID but there is no situation where you should have very little when arriving. Save as much as you can before going.
I spent about 4000 dollars in start up costs, could be more or less depending on placement. To my understanding I’m at the higher end of it thougg
I came with about 750 US in 2004. My base school fronted me and I paid them back my first few checks. If you ain’t rich, don’t sweat it, but you should have enough tucked away to take care of yourself for a little bit.
Iirc I came with about 2000 USD in 2014 for a city placement (Kyoto). I didn’t have to buy a car, but our apartments were largely unfurnished, so I prioritized things like a bed and slowly added things like shelves in the coming months once I got paid. I also got a bicycle pretty early on, made life much easier.
I came with 8k and my husband came with around 6k. Most of it my money gone with start up costs, furniture, etc.