Is 120万円 Adequate to Live in Big Cities For 学生?

7 comments

1. 12 man?

2. It depends. Will you have student housing? At a lot of schools, housing is less than 30,000 yen a month. So, 120,000 is plenty. You will still live like a student though.

   Students are exempt from pension and health insurance is like 1,500 a month for students. So unlike normal people, your scholarship will go much further.

   Your biggest cost will be food, and even that is super cheap if you eat at the cafeteria (300-400 yen per meal).

3. Assuming that you’ll be living in a dorm for about 30k yen per month, 90k to spend every month is within a regular Japanese university student’s budget range. You won’t be getting nice meals everyday, but you’ll be able to enjoy hanging out with your friends on the weekends and maybe a couple of small budget trips within the country per year. You’ll definitely want to cook often if you want to keep your spendings low to spend money on extra stuff, but you’ll easily find <800 yen restaurants even in Tokyo. Cafeteria meals are also very cheap (300-500 yen) and nice for your bank account.

4. Depends on how what meals and housing accomodations are.

   I had about the same amount for my PhD study. My expenses were:

   Old 35,000 /mo apartment with utilities.

   Regular cell phone plus home internet 8000

   Meals: 40000 weekdays all cafeteria food.

   Gas and Car insurance: 15,000

   About 10000 for various other things, furniture, coin laundry.

   Anything left over was just pocket money.

5. My dorm included 2 meals a day and it was walking distance to classes so zero transportation fees. All I really had to pay outside of that was textbooks and school supplies. I did my own laundry but it was in the dorm machines, which were also free. But that was pre-covid and I have heard that a lot has changed. I juat looked at Tokyo U’s housing page and randomly chose an international dorm to look at – rooms at that one dorm – which I’m pretty sure is one of the expensive ones – cost between 55,300 – 135,000 yen per month, and there is an onsite cafeteria (not sure if it’s free but it’ll be cheap) and laundry. There are some extra fees like internet that didn’t have a price listed but I doubt it totalls more than 10,000 a month. So I think 120,000 should easilly cover a dorm and food and maybe a cellphone but you will be expected to pay for things like a new laptop or vacation travel. But you might be able to save enough if you live frugally. Textbooks and lab supplies might eat a fair bit of money too, depending on your major. I waa able to get most of mine quite cheap, just used, though.

6. 120k is usually enough for a student.

   >Do I need to cook by myself and wash clothes by myself (not using washing machine)?

   Cooking by yourself is cheaper, but you can buy ready made food, eat at the university cantina, or eat at cheaper restaurants without busting your budget.

   You can use a washing machine. There are coin laundry, and most dorms/sharehouses have laundry machines. You can’t hire a house maid for that money.

   >Can I still buy good phones/laptops for University purpose in my first or second year?

   If you have some savings. And it depends on your definition of “good”. Check the prices of the device you think to buy, and see if you can afford it.

   >I kinda having a panic attack since some sources in the internet say that living in big cities will need at least more than 120k yen to live…

   That’s usually for *workers*. Students always have smaller budgets. It’s the same in your country I’d believe.

7. I didn’t know the stipend was cut. Before it was 142k if I remember correctly. I still think its more than enough for a student to live comfortably by. My best advise is to stay in a dorm and don’t move to an apartment if you can. Dorms are not only cheaper but provides more opportunity to interact and socialize.