▶ NEW: Japan work life at 29 — a $1,590 starting salary and the 45-hour overtime cap
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Hello! I'm Rei, a Japanese woman living in Osaka 😊

My real salary at 29, and the real cost of living in Japan for an ordinary month — $440 rent, $190 food, and the $570 I can't spend.

I work an office job in Osaka and live alone. In this video I go through every number: take-home pay, rent, utilities, food, and what's left at the end of the month.

For reference, the average salary in Japan for a woman in her late 20s is 3,530,000 yen a year (about $22,400), which comes to roughly 230,000 yen ($1,460) a month after tax. I earn a little more than that, and I know I'm fortunate.

Food is the part I can actually control. I shop at the supermarket instead of the convenience store, I carry a water bottle instead of buying drinks, and I eat out only two or three times a month. Japan also has a lot of "just mix it in" seasonings — mentsuyu, ponzu, yakiniku sauce, all around 300 to 500 yen — so cooking at home is easy even if you aren't good at it. That's probably why my food costs stay where they are.

But the money left at the end of the month isn't money I can use. Japan is a super-aged society, and I don't believe I'll be able to live on a pension alone, so my bonuses go entirely into retirement savings. There are things I want to do that I hold back on, and sometimes that feels a little lonely.

Also, the half-price tuna I bought had gone bad. A lesson about discount stickers 🤣

Next time, I'm back at my family home in Gifu. The rest of that trip is coming in the next video.
▶ Going Home to Rural Japan: Going Home to Rural Japan 🇯🇵

In your country, what share of your income goes to rent? And do you worry about money in old age?

Thank you for watching 🤍

⏱ Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:30 My take-home pay at 29
1:25 The numbers: salary vs the Japanese average
2:23 Rent and utilities
3:13 Food: where I actually save
3:40 What I bought and what it cost
4:44 Why I avoid convenience stores
6:07 A three-ingredient summer side dish
7:15 Japan's "just mix it in" seasonings
9:58 Total spending, and what's left
10:43 The half-price tuna had gone bad
13:09 Why I can't spend the money I save
14:29 Working on a bench by the river

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