Cost of living comparison

Lesotho

compared to

Japan

Japan vs. Lesotho Cost of Living Summary

Japan is 2.2 times more expensive than Lesotho overall.

Restaurants: pay 26.6% less in Japan
Groceries: pay 47.5% more in Japan
Transportation: pay 29.7% more in Japan
Housing: pay 5.5 times more in Japan
Childcare: pay 8.8 times more in Japan
Entertainment and Sports: pay 56.6% more in Japan
Clothing: pay 35.4% less in Japan

The cost of childcare, housing, entertainment and sports, groceries, and transportation in Japan are more expensive than in Lesotho. Expenses including clothing and restaurants are lower in Japan. Notably, childcare and housing are significantly more expensive in Japan.

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Japan vs. Lesotho Cost Breakdown

If you lived in Japan instead of Lesotho, you would:

Display currency: USD

pay 26.6% less for restaurants

	Lesotho	Japan
Basic meal with drink at inexpensive restaurant	$9.01 LSL148.38	$6.75 ¥1,066	-25.1%
Fast food combo meal McDonalds, or similar	$8.41 LSL138.49	$5.10 ¥805	-39.4%
Bottle of Coca-Cola (11 fl. oz)	$1.07 LSL17.56	$1.13 ¥179	+6.4%
Bottle of water (11 fl. oz)	$0.84 LSL13.85	$0.76 ¥120	-10.0%
Average			-26.6%

Lesotho vs. Japan - Cost of restaurants

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pay 47.5% more for groceries

	Lesotho	Japan
Bread 1 loaf	$0.83 LSL13.60	$1.53 ¥241	+84.7%
Local cheese (8 oz)	$3.30 LSL54.39	$5.55 ¥877	+68.0%
Milk (1 gallon)	$4.38 LSL72.07	$5.56 ¥879	+27.1%
Eggs 1 dozen	$1.54 LSL25.32	$2.01 ¥318	+30.7%
Boneless chicken breast (1 lb)	$2.79 LSL45.98	$2.85 ¥450	+1.9%
Apples (1 lb)	$0.85 LSL14.02	$2.16 ¥342	+154.1%
Bananas (1 lb)	$1.02 LSL16.71	$1.08 ¥171	+6.5%
Oranges (1 lb)	$1.23 LSL20.19	$1.54 ¥243	+25.4%
Tomatoes (1 lb)	$1.09 LSL17.95	$1.92 ¥303	+75.9%
Potatoes (1 lb)	$0.71 LSL11.66	$1.10 ¥174	+55.4%
Onions (1 lb)	$0.73 LSL12.00	$1.08 ¥170	+47.5%
Average			+47.5%

Lesotho vs. Japan - Cost of groceries

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pay 29.7% more for transportation

	Lesotho	Japan
Gasoline (1 gallon)	$4.98 LSL81.93	$4.11 ¥649	-17.4%
Monthly public transit pass	$30.04 LSL494.60	$63.20 ¥9,986	+110.4%
New Volkswagen Golf 1.4 (standard edition)	$21,030.86 LSL346K	$21,047.50 ¥3M	+0.1%
Taxi trip in downtown area (5 miles)	$6.01 LSL98.92	$24.65 ¥3,895	+310.2%
Average			+29.7%

Lesotho vs. Japan - Cost of transportation

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pay 5.5 times more for housing

	Lesotho	Japan
Internet connection 50 mbps or faster, cable/dsl	$38.30 LSL630.53	$33.54 ¥5,300	-12.4%
1-Bedroom apartment in downtown area	$93.14 LSL1,533.25	$546.58 ¥86,367	+486.9%
1-Bedroom apartment outside city center	$55.58 LSL915.01	$360.78 ¥57,008	+549.1%
Utilities for two (700 sq ft apartment) including electric, gas, water, heating	??	$113.26 ¥17,897
Average			+450.2%

Lesotho vs. Japan - Cost of housing

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pay 8.8 times more for childcare

	Lesotho	Japan
Private preschool for 1 child, monthly	$52.06 LSL857.06	$417.01 ¥65,893	+701.0%
Middle school for 1 child, two semesters	$1,181.73 LSL19,454.17	$11,300.14 ¥2M	+856.2%
Average			+775.2%

Lesotho vs. Japan - Cost of childcare

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pay 56.6% more for entertainment and sports

	Lesotho	Japan
Domestic/local beer (1 pint)	$1.80 LSL29.68	$2.57 ¥406	+42.6%
Cappuccino in mid-range area	$2.00 LSL32.97	$3.06 ¥483	+52.5%
Pack of cigarettes Marlboro or similar	$5.11 LSL84.08	$3.83 ¥605	-25.1%
Monthly membership at local gym	$23.03 LSL379.19	$53.31 ¥8,424	+131.4%
Movie ticket to theater/cinema	??	$11.73 ¥1,853
Average			+56.6%

Lesotho vs. Japan - Cost of entertainment and sports

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pay 35.4% less for clothing

	Lesotho	Japan
Regular jeans Levi's brand	$46.07 LSL758.38	$46.32 ¥7,320	+0.6%
Regular dress from H&M or similar store	$55.58 LSL915.01	$31.33 ¥4,950	-43.6%
Running shoes Nike or Adidas	$104.15 LSL1,714.61	$59.45 ¥9,394	-42.9%
Men's business shoes (leather)	$150.22 LSL2,472.99	$81.04 ¥12,805	-46.1%
Average			-35.4%

Lesotho vs. Japan - Cost of clothing

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We average the price of thousands of data points entered by users across the world. Sources: MyLifeElsewhere's cost-of-living dataset (prices updated October 2026). How we calculate this

Compare further: Lesotho vs. Japan

Salary Calculator · Free tool

What salary would you need in Japan?

Quality of Life Comparison · 21 statistics

Make 33.0 times more money in Japan

Size Comparison · See true size

Lesotho is about 12 times smaller than Japan.

Moving from Lesotho to Japan · OECD 2023

23 people moved from Lesotho to Japan.

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