Hello!
I’m currently working (started 2 years ago) for a company that is located in Osaka (I work remotely from France) and my wife and I are thinking about moving to Osaka this year or next year with our 2 kids (5 and 7 years old). My wife is Japanese, meaning it shouldn’t be too difficult to obtain a spouse visa, but I am worried about the monlthy budget that will be necessary to live there.
With my current position, my base salary is 200 000 yens. However, if I move to Osaka, it might be possible for me to become a manager, with a base salary of 250 000 yens (and 2 bonuses each year, which I’m not getting at my current position). As this hasn’t been decided yet, I’m thinking about this project with my current base salary and not the one that I might get in the future.
With a base salary of 200 000 yens, if my wife finds a job (let’s say around 100 000-120 000 yens), do you think it would be doable to live in Osaka as a family of 4 with a total of 300 000 – 320 000 yens each month?
I have no debt in my country and for the apartment, we will probably try to get one at UR賃貸 (around 5-6万 a month). If I were to summarize my questions:
1) Is it doable with 300-320k per month?
2) Is school expensive?
3) Is it possible to find a decent place at a cheaper price than the ones offered by UR賃貸?
If you have any tips,etc., I’m all ears.
Thanks!
by aizen59
5 comments
Bluntly: no.
Have a look at median rent + utilities + taxes etc.
Not to mention food and the cost of school for children.
As a comparison. A 2 person relatively comfortable income is around 450.000 yen.
Minimum requirement is that rent can only be a maximum of 25% of monthly net income.
320.000 / 4 = 80.000 yen for a family of 4 maximum. Osaka is more expensive than that.
You could look at cities close to Osaka like Nara or Amagasaki. But the other problem is, even with a Japanese wife, renting straight from coming abroad is an expensive thing. You will pay much more when immigrating to Japan.
200,000 is pre or after tax? Either way it sounds like way too little for a family of 4 imo.
I can’t imagine supporting a family with 320 pretax. I make a little less than that per month and I find it difficult enough to support just myself. You’d probably have to live outside of the city to have a living space big enough for a family.
How much are the bonuses per year? That might be the deciding factor. If they are significant, it’ll help.
The good news is that Osaka subsidizes public and private education up to and through high school. Uniforms, club activities, and textbooks can be pricey but you’ll at least tuition is covered.
Simple solution is for your wife to get a better job than some 100k yen/month gig. She could work full-time and easily make double that or more.
It’s tough to make it with that salary. You need minimum 300,000 take home to even tread water with a family of 4 (with a bonus of at least double salary twice a year). That’s cutting it tight and adding zero to savings.