Salary

[disco2000]

300000 per month
-60000 on insurance/taxes
-22700 on rent
-2400 on water
-2500 on power
-3000 on internet
-~4000 on cellphone bill
-2500 on landline
-10000 on kerosene (winter only)
-8000 on car insurance
-5000 on gas
-120000 sent home

So I end up with just about 60000 yen for food and any other expenses I might have. I usually have about 2000 yen left in my wallet by the time my next payday rolls around. Of course if I wasn't sending 120000 home every month I would have a lot more money left over.

[AVN]

300000 per month
-60000 on insurance/taxes
-22700 on rent
-2400 on water
-2500 on power
-3000 on internet
-~4000 on cellphone bill
-2500 on landline
-10000 on kerosene (winter only)
-8000 on car insurance
-5000 on gas
-120000 sent home

So I end up with just about 60000 yen for food and any other expenses I might have. I usually have about 2000 yen left in my wallet by the time my next payday rolls around. Of course if I wasn't sending 120000 home every month I would have a lot more money left over.

Kind of weird to think that you would be broke if you were on the new JET salary or you would have to send 20 000 less home every month.

[Siyris]

US ALT here, after deductions my pay is 258,000 or there about.
Out of that.....
Rent: 0
Water/Electric: 7,000 (summer) - 13,000 (winter)
Gas: 2000-4000
Insurance: 15,800
Cell phone: 6,000
Home line and Internet: 6,500
Transportation (gas and tolls): 10,000- 15,000
Groceries: 12,000
Shaken savings: 10,000

I think that's about right... so then I have just about 190,000 left to split between fun and savings and send home for student loans. On average, I've saved about 50,000 a month so far, and that just went up because I finished my car payments.

A note on that last thing -- If you own a car in Japan, you will have to pay Shaken on it most likely. Shaken is a complete safety check of the car that needs to be done once every two years. When I bought my car it had almost exactly a year left before it needed Shaken. Shaken can be very expensive (typically between 100,000 and 150,000 for a white-plate car), so I set aside 10,000 every month as a way to make sure I have the money for it when the time comes.... I would highly recommend doing something similar if you plan to purchase a car.

[AVN]

So you'll be getting 280 000 a month.

Then you minus around 8000 for tax, unless your CO sets you up to do it at the end of the year all in one go. At my old job I had to do it at the end but arranged to pay it over several payments.
Then you minus around 14 000 for pension
Then you minus around 14 000 for health care
Then you minus rent. You can imagine this is 0 - 50 000 yen.
Then you minus water, gas, and electricty which will vary wildly from month to month and town to town. But let's say between 10 000 at the best (low usage and low price) and 20 000 at the worst (though factors could make it higher). Also I have heard of a few, not common, who have these bills subsidized.
Then you minus extra bills like car, internet, phone, cell phone and any other you may wish to tack on. These vary so wildly I won't even bother.

[losdutchmen]

Do ALTs still get their pension/health insurance refund back at the end of their contract? I think it was equal to one month's salary for each year you were there?

[Siyris]

Do ALTs still get their pension/health insurance refund back at the end of their contract? I think it was equal to one month's salary for each year you were there?

I've never heard of a health insurance refund, but you are entitled to claim up to 3 years worth of pension (even if you work 4 or 5 years, you are only able to claim 3 years worth) once you have returned to your home country. You have some paperwork you have to file in order to receive it. My understanding is that it should be approximately 360,000 yen per year you worked. I am not positive on that though.

As for being able to 'still' get it... of course. The pension money is the equivalent of a US retirement account. It is your money, they will not suddenly say "oh, no you can't have that after all."

[AVN]

Do ALTs still get their pension/health insurance refund back at the end of their contract? I think it was equal to one month's salary for each year you were there?

You do not get the health plan money back because you use it. You live in the country and it protects you. You can't get it back.

Pension, you can get up to three years back as Siyris said.

[losdutchmen]

Do ALTs still get their pension/health insurance refund back at the end of their contract? I think it was equal to one month's salary for each year you were there?

You do not get the health plan money back because you use it. You live in the country and it protects you. You can't get it back.

Pension, you can get up to three years back as Siyris said.

Ok, Thanks for the info. I just wanted to make sure about the pension refund. Yeah, I get it, no refund for the health insurance. Stupid question, just couldn't remember the specifics. With the drop in salary for first years, and the possibility of the Yen getting weaker in the future, I'm really gonna have a tough decision to make. It will definitely be a drop in pay for me, but the opportunity to go is really pulling at me.

[AVN]

Do ALTs still get their pension/health insurance refund back at the end of their contract? I think it was equal to one month's salary for each year you were there?

You do not get the health plan money back because you use it. You live in the country and it protects you. You can't get it back.

Pension, you can get up to three years back as Siyris said.

Ok, Thanks for the info. I just wanted to make sure about the pension refund. Yeah, I get it, no refund for the health insurance. Stupid question, just couldn't remember the specifics. With the drop in salary for first years, and the possibility of the Yen getting weaker in the future, I'm really gonna have a tough decision to make. It will definitely be a drop in pay for me, but the opportunity to go is really pulling at me.

They key thing is to make sure the experience is worth the pay in cut and will actually help you in the end.

[KIKKI.K]

wow, everyone's bills here are so cheap... gas water and electricity prices vary wildly across the country, and then if you use a kerosene heater, you'll need to pay for fuel in winter... my water gas and electricity average about Y6000 each per month, more in winter, less the rest of the year....

basically, JET pays you way more than the private jobs people have on other forums where they might complain about how tough it is to get by in japan... you'll be fine... the first few months, you probably won't have anything left over, as you socialise and get things sorted for your apartment, then after that things will get more regular, and you should find you can save and travel without too much hassle... JET pays a lot, even with this new cut in salary... (american JETs, don't be confusing the non-american prospectives with your talk of pay rises... for the rest of us, it's a pay cut, pure and simple, but not too much of one)

[Crowbeak]

After insurance and stuff are taken out of my 300,000 a month, I am left with 260,000 being deposited in my account. My monthly expenses are approximately:

- 100,000 sent home to pay bills in the States, with the rest going into savings
- 12,000 rent
- 20,000 heating (winter only, and this is high because I leave my stove running constantly. I'm from Alaska and can handle any cold temperatures outside but by God my house had better be WARM on the inside)
- 3,400 NHK fees (actually 6,800 every two months)
- 4,000 electricity (I'm a hardcore gamer with multiple consoles and a computer on constantly)
- 3,000 water/sewage
- 10,000 cell phone (I have a smart phone with unlimited internet; the phone is a brand new model, super expensive, and payments on the phone are included in the bill)
- 9,003 per month payment for a loan taken out on an expensive new obi

This leaves me with about 98,000 or so to feed myself and play with.

My setup is slightly unusual in that I have no natural gas. The heating bill is kerosene.

[brainsteww]

After insurance and stuff are taken out of my 300,000 a month, I am left with 260,000 being deposited in my account. My monthly expenses are approximately:

- 100,000 sent home to pay bills in the States, with the rest going into savings
- 12,000 rent
- 20,000 heating (winter only, and this is high because I leave my stove running constantly. I'm from Alaska and can handle any cold temperatures outside but by God my house had better be WARM on the inside)
- 3,400 NHK fees (actually 6,800 every two months)
- 4,000 electricity (I'm a hardcore gamer with multiple consoles and a computer on constantly)
- 3,000 water/sewage
- 10,000 cell phone (I have a smart phone with unlimited internet; the phone is a brand new model, super expensive, and payments on the phone are included in the bill)
- 9,003 per month payment for a loan taken out on an expensive new obi

This leaves me with about 98,000 or so to feed myself and play with.

My setup is slightly unusual in that I have no natural gas. The heating bill is kerosene.

Just read your signature. Do you just like cold places? lol

I am from south Florida and listed Kyushu as one of my preferences XD

[SeaJay]

Thank you everyone for all your posts! This really helps to ease my mind about expenses. It seems like the rent is way cheaper than I originally thought! Of course, ESID but I pay about $610 in rent right now and it seems like not many peoples' rent is much more than that.

A lot of people I talk to about the JET Programme tell me the cost of living in Japan will be rediculous. But, I guess that's if you're living in a huge metropolis like Tokyo. Even with all the other bills y'all have talked about it seems like its not bad at all. Either that, or the google yen to dollar converter I've been using is lying through it's teeth.

[cate]

Hi guys, I understand that in general the JET salary is more than enough to cover all your expenses, but I do have one thing I am concerned about, which is my student loans. I have to pay around $1200/month on my loans and while by my calculations I should be able to pay that just fine I'm still a little worried that I might have to live as a hermit because of it, especially if I get placed somewhere with high rent, etc.

I guess my main question is, are there any JETs in this sort of situation and are you surviving? lol I'm not too worried but I feel like when people talk about how much money they save on JET those ppl don't have these extra payments that I will...wondered if I could get some more perspectivve.

[nickiroll]

This is just my experience, but coming over from South Korea, I was being paid the won equivalent of half the JET salary. There are some things to factor in, because the cost of living is generally lower in South Korea and I only had to pay utilities, not rent, and those I shared with a roommate, but the yen is incredibly strong right now. I was able to send anywhere from 800 to 1,000 usd home when I was earning about 2,000 usd a month. You learn what your budget is, and you learn to work around it. I learned to do my meat shopping at 11 pm when everything at the market was at the end of day discount.

I only ever ran out of money once, and that was the hubris of overspending. That's why you have to be nice to people, so they'll feed you if you have a stupid month.