From: d-itasak@nmit.mt.nec.co.jp (Daisaku Itasaka)
Subject: Re: Cost of Living In Musashino
Organization: NEC Microcomputer Technology Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 01:12:47 GMT

In article <1992Sep10.154511.18578@hamblin.math.byu.edu>
	luke@platypus.ee.byu.edu (David Luke) writes:

>>Probably. But such luxurious ones are exceptions.
>>I'm talking about average ones that an average person can afford to live.
>>An average person can never afford to pay 170000yen a month.
>>If you can, you are not average and don't even have to pay any rent.
>>Buy your own house!
>
>It depends greatly on what you mean by "average person".

Right.

>If you mean
>"average college student whose parents aren't paying for everything",
>yes.

Absolutely. 17 MAN doubtlessly kill them.

>If you mean "average new employee", yes.

Definitely. I have no way to survive if I had one.

>If, however, you mean "average person in late
>20s or early 30s, married, with wife working", 17 MAN is not at all
>unreasonable or unusual.

Yes. Just as I mentioned in the earlier article I posted.
Only DINKS can survive.

>(If nothing else, count up the number of 2LDKs
>in Tokyo in that price range (probably in the hundreds of thousands of
>units, if not more) and note that most of them are occupied, by "average"
>people).

Actually, right after I posted the previous article, I called some real
estate agencies in Musashino area and asked them they could tell me how
much the average rent for 2LDK approximately is, if it is 10 minutes walk
from Mitaka station. Replies are:

	r.e.a.  	phone number	reply
	=========================================
	sanraito	0422-22-2511	14~15 MAN
	ribesuto	0422-54-4435	13 MAN
	Green Box	0422-42-0800	15 MAN
	Nisshin Ind.	0422-32-5941	15 MAN

Their answers were all under 17 MAN, however, they all were much more than
I expected. Honestly, I was surprised. I didn't even think that high. But
if the average rent is like above, the bottom line may be lower. One of
the reasons why so expensive is, according to one of real estate agencies
above, because there were few 2LDKs in the area and now they are mostly
occupied, as David-san said, so that avalable ones might be hard to find.
The other one told me that "10 minutes from a station" is another point.
The cheaper you want, the longer you walk. :-)

I also asked them what kind of people actually rent such apartments. 
There seems to be 2 types, those whose monthly income exceed 50 MAN or
young DINKS couple, and companies. This is not an usual situation, I guess.

>Partly in relation to the topic at hand, and partly for future reference
>for those of us who may want to work in Japan on a permanent or semi-
>permanent basis, what it NEC's policy on shataku and housing allowances?

Unfortunately, I don't know about NEC's policy. ;-<
And I don't completely comprehend our company's policy either.
Maybe that's why I rent a private apartment on my own, not a shataku.

BTW, it is good to live alone. Since I have no family (I was brought up
in an institution where they raise children whose parents have no way to
feed because of finacial broken-down or directly death or whatever), I can
move wherever I want, whenever I want. Nothing is gonna stop me. You know,
some parents don't want their children leave them and children don't move
freely. I live my life without any other's unnecessary interferes.

-- 
A wrong guy in a wrong place at wrong time...
						 Daisaku Itasaka
				      d-itasak@nmit.mt.nec.co.jp
				NEC Microcomputer Technology Ltd.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan