Is cost of living higher in Japan or the UK? (Hallo, Yozora!!)?

Question

Both countries are known elsewhere for being "expensive", but which is more expensive and in what areas?

And why is Japanese food in the UK so bloody expensive? I can get a wonderful meal at an Italian restaurant for a reasonable £7-8, but a meal of comparable quality and quantity would cost £15-20 at a Japanese restaurant!

And the nearest Korean restaurant is a ruddy 40 miles away in Glasgow (I live in Edinburgh). So add £9 for a return train ticket to the cost of the meal >_

A little about myself:
I'm Chinese British. I was born here (down south in Kent to be exact) but I lived in Taiwan for the last 10 years, and I only returned (to Edinburgh) last September.

So what do I feel about prices in Edinburgh?
- Rent... fair enough, lower than what we paid in Taiwan.
- Food... Italian is reasonable, but Asian is too bloody expensive!! Asian food isn't supposed to be so expensive!!
- Everything else... not noticeably different from what I'm used to.

To goldlust74:
Well yes, you could compare Edinburgh prices with London prices...

But you could also compare Edinburgh with a smaller Japanese city like Kumamoto or Hiroshima!

Answer 1

Hello!
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Well ... it's hard to say for sure! As for rent, I don't know - we owned our own place in England, so it's not worth trying to compare rental costs now.

Food - European food, including BRITISH food! Is a LOT more expensive here. If you do price comparisons in ANY country, you'll find that if you get someone back 'home' to buy something for you, and mail it by surface mail, it costs about the same as the price in the shops. This is true of Japanese food in France as well as English & French food here. It's not so surprising - exporting goods costs money, and they need to make some profit ... but it's irritating to have to pay more than 700円 for 125g of Marmite...!! (Can't help thinking of that, we need to buy more today! Hope they haven't put the price up...!)

Restaurants are a totally different matter though. I never go to 'posh' restaurants, so I am comparing the prices of average or family restaurants, but in almost ALL things Japan is a lot CHEAPER than the UK! The exceptions are pizzas, and McDonald's & KFC! All about the same price in both countries! Strange and suspicious...!! I find it very soothing to go to a buffet style Chinese restaurant in Yokohama's Chinatown, and pay anything from £7 - £10 p/p for a truly slap-up dinner ... yet in the UK anything of that price would be a truly awful selection! (I tried the cheapest buffet I could find in London's Chinatown once ... about £7 ... pretty revolting!) Also, in the UK it's generally about £5 for ONE dish from a Chinese take-away - but here in Japan I can get a set meal for that, with rice, soup, maybe dessert or gyouza! AND usually they refill your rice bowl for free!! In the UK you'd pay up to a couple of quid just for plain rice.
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Drinks - how much is a 360 ml can of fizzy drink from a vending machine in the UK now? Here it was still 120円 last time I looked! 150円 for most 500 ml PET bottles. The best drinks are from Saizeria when you eat there - the drink bar is 180円 for people older than elementary school age, and 100円 for kids! The selection is fairly varied too, including hot and cold drinks. That's the only CHEAP drink bar I know of though - the rest are more expensive! About 300円 perhaps...?!

Food from shops & supermarkets is probably cheaper in the UK - in some cases by a lot, in other cases by a little. Obviously the Japanese foods are more expensive in the UK - and European style foods, like bread, cheese, milk, are more expensive here. A case of demand not being high enough to keep output high and prices low. That's also why Japanese restaurants are more expensive than Chinese restaurants in the UK - plus the fact that Chinese food isn't as limited and they can use the meat or veg that's cheapest at the market! Japanese restaurants sell mostly high-end food - sashimi for example. You can't cut costs with stuff like that - not without killing people..! If more people were interested in Japanese food, the price would go down because they'd be able to import things in bulk - or even make (or brew) them in the UK. Plus they'd have specially trained fishermen to prepare freshly caught fish for sushi and sashimi, which would make it easier to get, and better quality, and more convenient ... but it's not likely to happen I'm afraid! Anyway, bulk buying = cheaper retail prices, and quick sales help keep prices down too, by reducing waste. So if people WANT the cost of sushi to go down, they have to get thousands more people to buy it, REGULARLY!

Travel ... it's a LOT cheaper here in Japan, which is just as well because having a car isn't really convenient!

Electrical goods are a little cheaper, but nowhere near enough to make it worth ordering something from another country and getting them to mail it to the UK!

International phone calls - more expensive if you use NTT, cheaper if you use G=call!

I won't waste my time comparing fuel bills or local taxes, because they tend to go up every year (especially in the UK!) and they vary from district to district too.

Answer 2

Well, I have lived in the UK (near RAF Mildenhall) for 2 years and currently I live on Okinawa. I would have to say that both are pretty expense. However, I think that the UK is more expense for commercial goods because the dollar is so much weaker than the GBP. Here on Okinawa, the dollar is pretty much even with the JPY so, the prices don't really bother me that much.

The only thing that bothers me is that fact that I pay entirely too much for rent here in Okinawa. Can you believe that I pay almost $3000 a month for a 1700 sq ft house??? And that is rent...not a mortage. Nuts!! In the UK I was paying about $900 for a place about the same size.

Answer 3

Having spent a lot of time living in both countries, I can say that in my opinion the only advantage of Japanese life is the lower crime rate. The low crime rate is not caused by having less immigrants, and most crime is committed by Japanese people, naturally as there are so many more of them. Quality of life in Britain is extensively marred by fear. Fear of crime. Fear of job loss. And so on. In Japan the fear of losing your job exists too, but the fear of crime is very low. People here park their bicycle without locking it and go for a meal and a shopping session, no theft, no vandalism. They park their cars with the engine running. And mopeds too. And leave their shopping on the bikes and mopeds without a thought, and it's normally there when they get back. More developed? Well, British companies have been sending the work abroad for far longer than Japanese companies and in far larger quantities. It's as much about avoiding UK tax as it is about lower wages. Pure greed. Perhaps Japan may be behind the UK in that respect, but I think it's catching up. No coincidence that with the greed of the rich comes the deterioration of quality of life for the masses. Just my opinion.

Answer 4

I live in Central London and i have done all my life.The cost of living is twice as high as the cost of living as the cost in Scotland.
To go out for a meal lets say Italian,in London would cost £25.00 per head,The only good thing about living in London is travel,5Min's from my front door i have Bus,Tube,Tram,Train but even the cost of travel is sky high the min fare an the tube is £4.oo return and on the bus or tram,It is also a £4,00 return.So the cost of living in London is sky high.

Answer 5

I thinkTokyo is one of the most costly in the world. I'm in the San Francisco area, and Japanese food in a resturant is almost twice as high as Chinese ! Why ? I wish someone would tell me !

Answer 6

Japan

Answer 7

Of course Toyo, Japan.. It is the most advanced urban city on Earth with lowest crime rates & pollution index... Plus, Tokyo is one of the most expensive city on Earth while London not in the Top 5..

Answer 8

Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world, London is second-most. Sorry, I don't know alot about Scotland.

Answer 9

yes but you could also do a price comparison between Edinburgh and London