MMoving to Japan

Need help to decide on which city to stay in

  • October 3, 2025

Hi everyone,

I will be moving to Japan in December for work, and I am currently in a dilemma about which area/station I want to stay in. I will be moving here alone with no dependents or spouse so i will just be looking for a 1LDK at most.

My current criteria or considerations will be:

Apartment layout: 1LDK
Rent: Max 130,000Yen / month

Preference:
1. Expat friendly area (Somewhat)
2. Food, convenience stores, pharmacy, supermarket and shopping centre nearby
3. Lively city center
4. Travelling time to office is less than 45 mins, with no connections (Office is located at Shiba Park, near Daimon / Hamamatsuchō / Onarimon)

A few areas i have shortlisted are Kawasaki, Omori, Shinagawa as of now so any inputs will be much appreciated. Currently leaning towards Ota-ward area since i have to travel for work pretty often so being close to Haneda airport is nice but my only concern will be the noise.

Thank you in advance!

by Friendly-Rest42

3 comments

  1. In which interesting area do you find 130K Yen/month rental? That’s quite inexpensive at < $900 USD/month.

  2. Azabu-juban, Hiroo or Ebisu are where I’d aim if I were you but they’re not cheap so 130k won’t get you much space. 150-200k could get you a nice 1LDK though.

    Hamamatsucho is on the Yamanote line so you could try one of the cheaper yamanote stations.

    I probably wouldn’t live in Shinagawa personally (too built up and business/salaryman focused, though some may like that), and Kawasaki is a far and probably unpleasant commute.

    Plenty of places around Tokyo can get you to Haneda in under an hour so I wouldn’t focus so much on that — depends more on train lines than geography.

    I’d do more research on nice livable areas, there are a lot of them around your workplace since it’s pretty much in the middle of the city.

  3. We’ve moved to Tokyo twice and based on my experience, we didn’t really get to choose which city to live in, but rather we got to choose from what is available. The reality is there are a lot of rental properties in & around Tokyo but a lot of them also don’t like foreign renters. Of course you can tell your real estate agent your preferences and then he/she will send you proposals based on your budget.

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