Japan was super expensive 30 years ago when I lived there and had the perspective of a broke student. But the prices in yen haven't changed in those 30 years, and prices in dollars have gone down slightly. Don't you wish you could pay 90's prices today? You can, just go to Japan!

You and I should swap stories sometime. I tell my kids that when I lived there thirty years ago, also as a broke student, that I would load up on pickled ginger when I went out to sushi with friends because it was free (along with the warm towel and the bill.)

I've always heard the opposite - that things like food and housing are quite cheap for a developed country. As long as you aren't expecting those things to be Western-style.

I remember as a child (in the late nineties?) reading something about a new ferry transit or some kind of new transportation where a cup of coffee cost ¥300? I have never been to Japan so my math is JPY 100 = USD 1 so three dollars for a coffee which sounds expensive, right?

It is one of the weird things that get stuck in my head for no reason. No idea why I was reading random local news from Japan.

> housing are quite cheap for a developed country

you must be joking.

No, the poster is not. We're talking about the world's third largest economy by GDP, and I have first-hand experience with being on the market for Japanese real estate, today. You want to hear a joke? Try San Francisco Bay Area. Then look at the price of a house in Tokyo.

And my God, the construction, convenience, and technology of Japanese houses beats the living crap out of the shoddy construction you see in the Bay Area. Do you get less usable land square-meters wise? Sure. But if you can concede that, the deal is way better.

Housing (per sqft relative to income) in Japan is cheap if you're making American wages.

Anything anywhere is cheap if you're making American wages.

That's how the empire works.

I don't think London is cheap, American wages or not.

London is also part of the imperial core.

Yikes there is no empire

Japanese real estate is a minefield (https://catforehead.com/2022/11/09/planned-obsolescence/)

That article: Yawn. Couldn't care less about what it has to say.

I'm interested in Japanese houses because I want to live in it like a regular human being, for today. I'm not inerested in buying a house in San Jose because I have moral and ethical beliefs against propping up the housing-as-an-investment industry as if I'm some kind of investor.

Housing is typically cheaper in Japan because:

1. Depopulation

2. Efficient zoning laws

3. Rapid depreciation of home value over time due to natural risks(earthquake etc) and cultural norms

> Depopulation

Tokyo has been growing at a much faster rate than NY or LA.

Housing doesn't seem overly cheap to me if you are looking at equivalent floorspace.

He's being paid in USD.

Yes it used to be expensive in the 90's but it stayed flat while the rest of the world saw inflation especially in housing.

And yes, if you see it as a touristic destination it's not cheap, just as doing tourism in NYC isn't cheap at all.

IME being there for a month, the public transportation costs add up but food and housing (provided you stay at cheap-ish hotels) are extremely reasonable unless you're constantly getting the fanciest meals.