Japan is 21.0% cheaper than United States.

If you lived in Japan instead of United States, you would:

pay 51.2% less for restaurants

 
United States
Japan
Basic meal with drink at inexpensive restaurant $18.15
 
$6.87
¥1,027
Fast food combo meal
McDonalds, or similar
$9.28
 
$5.20
¥776
Bottle of Coca-Cola (11 fl. oz) $2.24
 
$1.13
¥169

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pay 0.1% more for groceries

 
United States
Japan
Bread
1 loaf
$3.17
 
$1.58
¥237
Local cheese (8 oz) $5.93
 
$6.69
¥1,000
Milk (1 gallon) $3.83
 
$5.53
¥826

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pay 22.7% more for transportation

 
United States
Japan
Gasoline (1 gallon) $3.72
 
$4.79
¥716
Monthly public transit pass $63.08
 
$77.51
¥11,585
New Volkswagen Golf 1.4 (standard edition) $25,096.27
 
$20,322.73
¥3,037,537

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pay 44.1% less for housing

 
United States
Japan
Internet connection
50 mbps or faster, cable/dsl
$70.73
 
$36.05
¥5,388
1-Bedroom apartment in downtown area $1,528.07
 
$586.71
¥87,692
1-Bedroom apartment outside city center $1,282.97
 
$401.57
¥60,020

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pay 46.1% less for childcare

 
United States
Japan
Private preschool for 1 child, monthly $1,137.97
 
$343.45
¥51,334
Middle school for 1 child, two semesters $15,943.15
 
$12,362.75
¥1,847,798

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pay 13.7% less for entertainment and sports

 
United States
Japan
Domestic/local beer (1 pint) $5.19
 
$3.03
¥453
Cappuccino in mid-range area $4.51
 
$3.16
¥473
Pack of cigarettes
Marlboro or similar
$8.57
 
$4.29
¥641

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pay 14.8% less for clothing

 
United States
Japan
Regular jeans
Levi's brand
$45.40
 
$43.55
¥6,509
Regular dress
from H&M or similar store
$36.73
 
$32.13
¥4,802
Running shoes
Nike or Adidas
$79.51
 
$59.61
¥8,910

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The statistics used to build this comparison are calculated using data from users just like you. We average the price of thousands of data points entered by users across the world. Learn more about our data sources. Page last updated: December 2023
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