How’s the cost of living situation for living in the countryside?

I used to live and work in Osaka but I had to leave the country during the start of the pandemic (before lockdown) to be with my family and other personal reasons.

I’m ready to move back to Japan (I’m a Japanese citizen, but I was raised elsewhere until I was an adult), and all of my work is now online so I thought, it would be nice to live in a more quiet, rural place. Mostly because it would be cheaper (or so I heard) and I’ve lived in a busy city all my adult life since that’s where I found employment, but now I am no longer required to commute to work. A change of pace would be nice. (I also have 3 dogs that I am planning to bring with me and a 1K apartment life in the city would just be absolute chaos.)

So… how is it actually like to live in a rural area? Is it really affordable to rent a house with a garden?

7 comments
  1. All the normal bills are roughly the same. But you NEED a car so add on the costs of that to the mix. Houses to buy, cheap as fuck, to rent, cheap as fuck

  2. Living in a small town in Tochigi prefecture, it’s easy to rent a recent(ish) house for 100,000 to 130,000 yen a month. You can rent older houses for a lot cheaper than that. Size would be around 100 sqm.

    Depends on the place and the age of the house really. The further away from anything relevant you are, and the older the house, the cheaper it gets.

  3. This post will be deleted since you don’t actually live in Japan now. Try the moving to Japan group.

  4. Accomodation will be cheaper. Much cheaper depending where you are and what you’re comparing it to.

    Parking usually free.

    Depending where you are, food may be 30% cheaper or almost the same.

    Utilities are essentially the same.

    Eating out will be limited but generally cheaper.

  5. FYI – you will need at least 6 months for the rabies testing required for importing animals!
    Keep that in mind when planning your move timeline.

  6. Living in a big old house very rural with bf and son. We have a big garden and enough space for three cars. We pay 20.000Yen a month.
    There are quite some empty places around as old
    people are dying away.
    You probably need a car, but you can buy fresh food at 産直 or if you’re good at connecting you will recieve loads of stuff from neighbours, not only food but all kinds of things. Well got a car for cheap and one neighbor has a son just half a year older, they bring clothes that are cheaper etc etc

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