Tokyo vs. Washington Cost of Living Summary

Tokyo vs. Washington Cost Breakdown

If you lived in Tokyo instead of Washington, you would:

pay 65.5% less for restaurants

 
Washington
Tokyo
Basic meal with drink at inexpensive restaurant $28.00
 
$7.59
¥1,191
Fast food combo meal
McDonalds, or similar
$12.00
 
$5.06
¥794
Bottle of Coca-Cola (11 fl. oz) $3.17
 
$1.64
¥257

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pay 28.2% less for groceries

 
Washington
Tokyo
Bread
1 loaf
$4.11
 
$1.71
¥268
Local cheese (8 oz) $8.53
 
$5.29
¥830
Milk (1 gallon) $4.95
 
$5.75
¥902

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pay 23.7% less for transportation

 
Washington
Tokyo
Gasoline (1 gallon) $4.19
 
$4.08
¥640
Monthly public transit pass $120.00
 
$63.27
¥9,924
New Volkswagen Golf 1.4 (standard edition) $36,375.00
 
$21,725.38
¥3M

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pay 58.0% less for housing

 
Washington
Tokyo
Internet connection
50 mbps or faster, cable/dsl
$77.77
 
$30.33
¥4,758
1-Bedroom apartment in downtown area $2,717.33
 
$1,280.34
¥201K
1-Bedroom apartment outside city center $2,228.89
 
$692.48
¥109K

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pay 57.2% less for childcare

 
Washington
Tokyo
Private preschool for 1 child, monthly $3,221.33
 
$1,341.43
¥210K
Middle school for 1 child, two semesters $41,506.00
 
$18,252.10
¥3M

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pay 46.9% less for entertainment and sports

 
Washington
Tokyo
Domestic/local beer (1 pint) $9.00
 
$3.80
¥595
Cappuccino in mid-range area $6.15
 
$3.56
¥559
Pack of cigarettes
Marlboro or similar
$13.94
 
$3.92
¥615

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pay 32.8% less for clothing

 
Washington
Tokyo
Regular jeans
Levi's brand
$71.42
 
$55.50
¥8,706
Regular dress
from H&M or similar store
$44.11
 
$32.95
¥5,169
Running shoes
Nike or Adidas
$104.50
 
$65.04
¥10,203

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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

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