I'm planning on living in Japan on ~$45k/yr post-tax income. Looking for viable cities, Yokohama seems odd.
It's the 2nd largest city by population, relatively new, and plenty of space. Seemingly tons of things to do, and also close enough to the largest city in Japan (Tokyo) via a short-ish train ride.
So I'm wondering… new infrastructure, abundance of activities, proximity to the largest city, still walkable, and significantly cheaper housing than Tokyo. What's the catch?
Why wouldn't someone (especially someone who wants to own property) live here as opposed to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, or some smaller remote town?
It seems like the ideal spot with respect to cost vs quality. Is there something that I'm missing?
by No-External3221
16 comments
It’s a long commute from Tokyo (where a lot of people work).
Also, “Yokohama” covers a wiiiiide area. There are cheaper areas, there are more expensive areas. There are great areas with lots of what you list, there are less great areas with little of what you list.
It depends on the build and area you’re looking at, same for both renting and buying. although a big part of it in my view comes down to the “name” factor.
Places like tsurumi for example gets a bad rep because lots of factories and not chic basically. But it’s one train within 30mins to Tokyo station (assuming if one works around marunouchi). Anecdotes but my partner (Japanese) refuses to consider many places with no other reason than “it’s bad”.
I used to also live in higashi kanagawa – which is sort of family oriented on one side, and factories on the other side of the railway. But the rent was very cheap for the accessibility – you just don’t much options for a night out drinking and then walk home like many other stations.
Yokohama is HUGE. When people see “Yokohama” they often imagine the Yokohama Bay Area, but if you go inland you’ll find a lot of rural areas that are nowhere near train stations and definitely not walkable. I have a friend who’s from Yokohama and she has the tendency to say “Yokohama-shi” because she’s tired of people assuming she lives in Motomachi or something
Like always, it depends on the area.
You could replace Yokohama with Osaka, and it would still be true, but it all depends on the specific area you choose in both cities, as prices vary wildly. Both cities also have “undesirable” areas that are much less clean and nice but looks great on paper for cost peformance.
Another thing to watch out for is the relatively high residential tax when you live in Yokohama. With their municipal subway and land reclamation projects, the city is spending a TON of money.
Don’t forget they have something that Tokyo doesn’t have, Costco 🙌
What do you mean “why wouldn’t someone live here…?’” About 3.7 million of us do live here!
In Kanagawa, Yokohama is the highest for city tax followed by Odawara. Just be aware of that
Yokohama can be expensive; it just depends on where you live. According to surveys it’s the most desirable area to live in the region. If you don’t need to commute into Tokyo, you’ll be much happier in Yokohama.
The good places in Yokohama are actually fricking expensive, it’s the outskirts towards Shounan that are more affordable.
I guess you are not considering investment and pension to live long time in Japan.
“still walkable ”
To where ? Depends where you live. It’s a large area and so up and down. Some parts are modern and decent and some areas of Yokohama are so slummy and shitty. Having a car gives you a much better quality of life around Yokohama and opens up choices.
Kanagawa police is said to be the worst by the internet
Tokyo has better childcare subsidiaries and school lunch. Moms in Kanagawa always talk about this.
“It’s the 2nd largest city by population”… “why wouldn’t someone live here”
????
Basically all of Japan is cheap outside of central Tokyo, and even that isn’t outrageous compared to other major global cities.
Because it’s broke. The city spends more than it takes in in taxes.