Salary

[SeaJay]

Not that the money is really that important to me, I'm still curious about the salary and have a few questions for current/former JETs.

How much were your rent/bills (bills that purely relate to the cost of living in Japan) per month in general?
Did you find the salary was just enough to pay all that or more than enough?
Did you find it possible to sock some away for savings?

I know that the general response when people talk about cost of living in Japan is that its "astronomical", but I've heard people say that its only super ridiculous when you are living in a gigantic city like Tokyo. Does the cost of living go down when living in the smaller cities and more rural areas that most JETs get placed?

Thank you in advance for your input!

[jim]

Salary wise, you could be shelling out around 50% of it (120,000 yen approx) on rent, bills, car, travel etc, or you could be shelling out practically nothing. The main factors affecting it are where you're placed, whether or not your housing is subsidised, and how far you are from school.

Cities like Osaka and Kyoto (you won't get sent to Tokyo) are in general quite expensive but there are plenty of semi-urban and rural areas with high living costs also. Even within towns themselves, you'll find that individual JETs have very different outgoings.

Even if you're given an expensive placement, you'll have more than enough money to live a pretty pleasant lifestyle. If you get a cheaper placement, you can do that and put some savings away on top.

[Patryn]

what jim said.

Also, yes. I believe it would be quite easy to live off of for one person. There's a thread on here about families too if you look for it, but if you budget correctly, it's all okay.

[fiori]

2nd year JET here I have found that the salary is more than enough to live on hassle-free, with enough left over to save for a very rainy day. Of course how much you can save/ avoid spending, will be dependent on your lifestyle, your rent and basic living costs. I live near the middle of a small city (10 minute train ride to the center) and fortunately my rent is partially covered by the BOE, meaning that I pay 20k a month as a opposed to 50/60k, yay I small run down of my monthly expenses are probably:

20k - rent
4/5k? - iphone
5k - internet
3k - car park space
6-10k - electric/water/gas (in winter I use more electric because its damn cold)
7k - gym

I think those are the bills I pay on a monthly basis in addition to the 40k that gets taken away for insurance/pension (however I get a percentage of that back for 1-3 years here)

Some weeks I can spend hardly anything but then other months I may wonder where the heck my money went, but usually I can at least save around 100,000-120,000 yen a month and still buy what I want from the supermarket and go out most weekends. Althoughhhhh on the new salary scale for incoming JETS there will be a bit of a decrease in your take home amount (40-60k? ive no idea tbh) so for any current/former JETS commenting, expect you to save slightly less than the average amount. Of course you could just do like a previous JET did and be super conservative with your utilities, i.e re-using sink water, never using the AC etc and maybe you will save the odd extra pence or 2

[nicklar]

You can save a lot or you can blow it all. I knew JET's who saved wads of cash. My predecessor was notoriously tight - cut his own hair, patched up holes in his shoes with tape, didn't go home in the holidays, hitch hiked instead of catching a bus, etc. After two years he took home $25,000 + with him. Others are not too concerned with saving. I spent nearly all my money because I used to travel a lot but still managed to pay off my student loans (not that they were that huge).

[jerichodawn]

As has already been mentioned, every situation is different, but here is an example of some of my monthly expenses:

Rent- 10320 yen (subsidized teachers housing)
Public transit (I dont drive here)- around 10000 yen
Gas, electricity- around 5,000 yen each
cell phone- around 8,000 yen (but there are much cheaper plans than this)
food- 20,000 yen
internet- 5,000 yen
fun- 3,000 yen

I send home about 150,000 yen per month or roughly $2,000. Half of that goes to student loans, the other half is savings for travel and post JET.

I live in a small town in Hokkaido about an hour from Sapporo, and while I dont live in the city, I go there relatively often. I know people who have a similar situation to me, and I know people who spend spend spend.

The max Ive heard of for rent is about 40,000 yen and thats a studio in Sapporo.

If you have any other questions, feel free to let me know!

[AVN]

Again I will say ESID dependiing on how you live, where you live, and whether you have subsidized rent. Some people even get a free car.

I want to add though that none of us can speak to how it will be as you will be making less than we ever have as a JET.
You will be the first JETs to have the low first year salary.

[hydroflames]

i live in the biggest city of my prefecture (though it's still less than 400,000 people) and so i pay quite a steep amount of rent!
i pay 52,000 yen per month on rent alone plus all my bills and utilities.
HOWEVER, i go out for dinner 2/3 times a week, drink most of the weekend and travel around japan/my prefecture and still have some money left over each month!
i wasn't sure how my salary would last before i arrived, and even though ESID, it's definitely more than enough to get you by.
if you havent had a full-time salary before, get excited!!!

[SeaJay]

Thank you, everyone! All this information is really helpful. I do realize that the salary is less this year, but how much less is it than it was last year? If y'all don't mind me asking. Because honestly I'm living comfortably on less than half of how much I could possibly be making through JET. I pay about $900 in bills a month not including groceries.

[aboultzi]

Thank you, everyone! All this information is really helpful. I do realize that the salary is less this year, but how much less is it than it was last year? If y'all don't mind me asking. Because honestly I'm living comfortably on less than half of how much I could possibly be making through JET. I pay about $900 in bills a month not including groceries.

Well, just according to the sites first year JETS made 3.6 million yen during their first year contract. This year whoever is going will make 3.3 million yen. If they re-contract it'll be 3.6 in the second year.

[mtreecorner]

Rent- 10320 yen (subsidized teachers housing)

Wow. That is some really cheap rent.

[mtreecorner]

Question on this topic:

How much do you think new US Jets will get per paycheck after deductions? It seems that current Jets were getting like 230,000-270,000 after deductions.

[Patryn]

US ALT JETs would expect 20k taken off per month, so 210-250k/month.

JETs from countries that don't have tax exemption should expect less than that.

[KoeiS]

Anyone know what the expectation should be for Canadian JETs?

[AVN]

Anyone know what the expectation should be for Canadian JETs?

Take off another 7000 - 8000 yen a month for taxes approximately (I pay 7900 but then it's given back to me but it won't be for you).
That's my best guess off the top of my head so more like:

200 000 - 240 000 a month, maybe more depending on the season and your bills.
The 200 000 is for higher rent, the 240 000 and up would be for subsidized/free rent.