Hacker News Reader

Comment by Konichivalue | Hacker News Reader

Yes, the numbers are a bit skewed by the fact that more people live alone in Tokyo than Paris or NYC, but it's definitely true that you get more square meters per $ in Tokyo. Also, it is true that people on Tokyo on average earn less than NYC, London and Paris, but they also spend a smaller percentage of their total income on housing, so housing is cheaper in PPP terms too. I'll dig out the exact numbers tomorrow if anyone is interested, but now I'm out in one of Tokyo's extremely cheap bar districts having skewers and beers for less than $10

View on HN

Do you know numbers about how much housing is sponsored by the companies in Japan? Maybe that's what is making the difference since it's not counted neither as salary, nor as the price of the house? I know some large companies sponsor partially or totally the housing of thousands of their employees, again skewing prices greatly.

For example if Tanaka's salary is $500 lower because the company is partially paying for their place, that means on paper his salary is lower, the price of the place is MUCH lower, and the ratio of housing/salary is also lower, than if he received those $500 and then used it to pay for the house.

They aren't from my experience working in two major Japanese companies. Sometimes they'll pay your network bill if WFH is allowed, but that's basically it. Not sure about smaller companies, but honestly, I'd be surprised.

They definitely do, I was paid for it working at a Japanese company, and I know multiple personal cases where that happened as well (one was a dormitory, another full housing, and another partial housing). The internet is full of evidence that it happens, so my question is "how often?".

e.g. https://www.gtalent.jp/blog/japanwork-en/social-insurance-we... or https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/54fjgf/how_much_...

One of the apartments that I used to rent was owned by a large Japanese firm, specifically for the purpose of renting out at a substantial discount to its employees.

Maybe it's a thing in foreign company and foreign employees. Plus, note that reddit thread is 6y old and already plenty of answers say are getting nothing from the company. I've never heard of Japanese company paying Japanese employee for rent, even partially. Nor I would expect it to be a common thing. As said, though, I just worked in two companies and just have a bunch of friends, which makes it purely anecdotal.

I specified Japanese company for a reason... I've worked in 3 Japanese companies, 2 being "foreigner" (where they did not offer that) and one traditional Japanese (where they offered that).

I know 3 Japanese people (nothing to do with foreigners or foreign companies) that had their house paid by the company totally or partially, and they told me it was common in their company/industry. And those were large industries (train company, hospital, manufacturing).

Mine is anecdotal, but from how they described it it's an anecdote involving hundreds to thousands of people indirectly, so I'm very confident that it's not an isolated thing.

In Tokyo, you can work as a part time janitor and make enough to live in a 500 square foot place within a 30 minute commute by train

No, you can’t.

50sqm is a large apartment for a single person. Without checking, I’d guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 man per month.

A part time janitor would gross half that.

That's weird then, since I know someone in that boat. You can easily get out into Setagaya-ku from Shinjuku with less than a 30 minute commute, and there are plenty of cheap places to live out there

I paid 13 man/month for a 47m^2 apartment, and that was in a pretty nice area (Mitaka) and without searching particularly hard.

Our place is two floors, 54 square meters, desirable area, ¥150000/month, within the 23 wards (inside the Yamanote line as well). We started renting it two years ago.

My place in an extremely desirable area in Setagaya ku (56m2, 5 mins from Shimokita by foot) is 25man, same size in a equally centrally located part of Suginami ku (Koenji) would be around 15man, bump it out to Mitaka and you’re looking even cheaper, go 10-15 mins from the station instead of 5 and it’s dirt cheap.

There's a tax savings thing that companies do, where the lease is done in their name, and your rent is deducted from your paycheck. It's beneficial for both you and the employer, so it's pretty common.

I don't think it's extremely common to live in actual employer provided housing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com