Hi there! So me and my wife are looking into doing Jet, we both have Tesol certificates along with bachelor degrees and we were wondering if someone whose done it before could provide insight in regards to living costs, we understand that it is heavily based on we’re you are placed, we were just looking to get a rough idea of housing and grocery cost, and other fees we should take into consideration in the more rural part of the country, in order to gauge wether it’s financially feasible to go to Japan and teach as opposed to another country. We know the first year salary is low but manageable.
4 comments
Former countryside JET here. I was lucky to be placed in the lowest cost of living area in Japan, but my student loans had made it impossible still to save. If y’all can pay off all your loans/debt before you go to Japan you’ll be way better off, but it is doable.
Examples of my bills:
Subsidized teacher housing rent: ¥8200 (no, I didn’t misstype. It was insanely cheap).
Water bill for three months: ¥8000-ish (included apartment management fee)
Electric bill (summer, bc I didn’t really use AC): ¥5000-ish
Winter: ¥20,000 (I can’t stand the cold and used my heaters liberally)
Gas: my first year there I didn’t know that I wasn’t paying my gas bill, and at the end of the year my bill was about ¥37,000. It’s amazing they didn’t shut my gas off after two months, but that’s Japan I guess. I didn’t even have any late fees as far as I was aware. Learned to pay my gas bill at the local hardware store after that lol)
Anyways, that’s about ¥3000 per month.
Car rental (you have to have a car out in rural places because there’s not much public transportation in the mountains): ¥36,000, included insurance.
Phone/internet package: ¥15,000
Groceries: about ¥5000 per week, because I splurged on fruit which is a bit expensive there, but most veggies are insanely cheap if you get them local and in season.
Car fuel: ¥3000 per fill up, about twice a month (so ¥6000)
Eating out with friends: ¥5000-10,000 a month
Rough total: ¥91,200- ¥111,200 a month in expenses. My student loan payments used to be almost $1000 a month (sometimes more for the ones paid every three months) so saving was still hard. Once the payments were stopped bc of the pandemic I easily saved about $10k in a year tho, which was awesome and helped me move back and have a nest egg to live off of while I searched for a job state side.
Hope that break down helps.
Living in the Aomori countryside. Little public transit so driving everywhere is a must.
Housing: ¥20,000 for an apt that fits 1-2.
Electricity: around ¥2-4,500/mo. Luckily I don’t own or need an air conditioner.
Water: ~¥3-4,000/mo
Gas: in warm months, around ¥3,000. Colder months, ¥10-20,000. Winters are brutally cold here, with little up insulation.
Phone/internet: ¥12,000
Petrol: around ¥4-10,000 depending on drives, etc. (after petrol stipend).
Car: bought a cheap old yellow plate, paid off in 8 months at 30,000/mo. There is inspection/taxes every two years. First time I paid ¥85,000. Second time my car unfortunately had a lot of repairs, ended up being ¥150,000.
Insurance: ¥12,000/mo.
Medical: ¥6,700/mo. I see a couple docs regularly, one is covered by insurance (¥1,700/mo for visit and medicine) one is not (2x/mo @ ¥2,500).
Groceries, toiletries: widely varies. About 2,500-10,000/week. I also enjoy cooking and spend quite a bit on nice groceries When buying produce I try to buy in season from the local roadside station (kind of like a permanent farmers market).
I am conscious of utilities and try not to use them an inordinate amount, but during the winters when I can see my breath in my apartment, just a kotatsu doesn’t cut it, so I’m fine raking out the ¥¥¥ for heat.
A car is required for my placement. BOE gives me a petrol stipend but actual car and insurance costs are solely on me.
Plenty left over for going out with friends, travel, saving etc.
Edit:formatting
The JET salary is livable in all placements.
Your quality of life will differ based on your lifestyle and commitments. If you’re in Tokyo, you CAN get by, but you may not get to travel a lot or do everything on your bucket list. If you need a car, your expenses will be more – if you’re paying back student loans, again, that makes things tighter.
I’m in a suburb in Chiba, on the border of Tokyo:
Rent: 37’000 for a new 3DK
Internet: free
Phone: 2900
Utilities: 15’000/ a month
School lunch: 4270 (worth every yennie)
Food & Misc spending: 40’000
So my living expenses are around ¥100’000 a month. I don’t need a car, but I spend a lot on transportation to go out and have fun.
The first few months are a little hectic, but things even out after a couple paycheques.
I’m here with my husband in a suburb of Kyoto! When you have 2 people they usually make you rent a bigger place which is more expensive. But if course ESID lol we pay about ¥85000 a month for rent excluding utilities, but we also had a choice is 3 living options and chose the newest and nicest one. It off course depends on what your priorities are, we really wanted space and clean comfortability and picked the one closest to the station:) I’m a prefectural JET and they do not subsidize or help pay.