Tokyo still most expensive city

Tokyo is still the world’s most expensive city to live in, according to the latest Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living survey. However, Osaka is no longer in second place on the list; it has been replaced by Oslo in Norway. One of the survey’s editors said that this is probably because Japan has been locked into a pattern of low or negative inflation for some years now as a result of unemployment and a number of economic problems.

Northern Europe is gaining, due to their strong economies and rising prices. The top four on the list are:

  1. Tokyo, Japan
  2. Oslo, Norway
  3. Osaka, Japan
  4. Reykjavik, Iceland

I had mentioned a similar survey a couple of months ago, which also found that Tokyo is the most expensive city. There seem to be a few organisations doing these surveys — the results do tend to be similar, if not always identical.

Related reading

Tokyo is most expensive city

The annual Mercer survey has found that Tokyo is by far the most expensive city in the world to live...

AJALT

AJALT are the people who publish the Japanese for Busy People books, so if you like those books you might...

Budget Travel Hints

The Japan National Tourist Organisation has a useful little page of Budget Travel Hints. There's a list of prices of...

About this website

My name is Bennett McElwee. I first visited Japan back in 1992, when I stayed for a couple of weeks...

Bank account in Tokyo

I wanted to open a bank account when I first moved to Tokyo. It turned out to be quite difficult:...