JET Income and Expenses

I'm not sure how useful this really is, but for anyone who finds these things interesting, here's a rundown of monthly income and expenses here in Japan.

Income

The Paycheck
My pay varies a bit depending on how many days I've worked in a month. During my first year, my base pay was 280,000 yen per month. I get a bunch of taxes and insurance taken out of that. I usually ended up with around 230,000 take home salary. For my second year, I get a pay raise, so my base pay became 300,000 and I take home around 250,000 yen.

Rent Subsidy
Additional to my salary, I also get 27,000 yen every month for rent subsidy. It is direct deposited into my bank account with my salary. So I'm not technically getting my rent reduced, I'm just getting extra pay to help cover the cost.

Child Benefits
Even though we're not Japanese, Yana gets child benefits here! It's no secret that Japan has a rapidly ageing population, so this is one government incentive for couples to have children. The whole thing is a bit mysterious to me, to tell the truth, but I think I'm being paid 40,000 yen in a lump sum every 4 months.

Bills

Energy - 11,000 - 46,000 yen every month
Energy, or in other words, electricity. We pay monthly. The cost varies widely, depending on the time of year. Our highest costs were in the winter, when we had electric heaters running nearly 24/7. In the spring and fall our costs are quite low, because we use neither heat nor air conditioning. Again, there is a small spike in summer, because we use fans 24/7, and the air conditioning during July and August.

Water - 2,000 - 5,000 yen every month
We pay a water bill monthly, and it is automatically withdrawn on the 30th or 31st day of the month. Of course it varies depending on usage, but we've never paid over 6,000 yen. Usually we pay around 4,000 yen.

Sewage - 4,320 yen every month
In addition to the water bill, we also pay a sewage fee every month. It is automatically withdrawn from my account on the same day as the water bill, so the 30th or 31st of the month. It is always the same amount.

NHK - 2,520 every two months
There is a law (albeit one with lots of loopholes) in Japan that just by owning a TV, you must pay a fee to NHK. This comes from a belief that all TV owners/viewers should share the cost. There are several different billing setups, but we pay 2,520 every two months, starting from December.

Rent - 57,900 yen every month
For rent, we pay 57,900 every month. But again, I receive a rent subsidy of 27,000 as a separate deposit from my paycheck. So the idea here is that we only pay 30,900 for rent.

Apartment Maintenance - 3,500 yen every month
I started being charged this halfway through my first year. Not going to lie, it irritates me a bit that this fee was randomly imposed, and I can't see any evidence of the apartment being better maintained for it. But as they say here, "shouganai" - it can't be helped.

Cellphone - 15,506 yen every month
When we first arrived we signed up at Softbank for a smartphone plan with 5GB of data. However, with two smartphones the cost was an insane 20,208 yen each month. We went and changed our plan to the lowest data plan of 2GB. Now we pay 15,506 every month for both phones. To be honest, a phone for Justin is probably a bit superfluous, but we find it useful during outings and to stay in contact during the day.

Internet - 4, 644 yen every month
There was a setup fee of around 10,000 yen. Now we pay 4,644 a month, and that's for unlimited, fiber optic internet. It's actually even better than what we had in Canada!

Phone - 2,376 yen every month
In order to install the internet, we also had to get a phone line. This comes to just over 2,000 yen a month. It's also a fancy TV phone, so you can video call and I think it's actually free to use within Chizu. It also shouts announcements throughout the day, which I kind of wish it didn't.

Kyuushoku (School Lunch) - 1,200 - 3,000 yen x2 every month
I pay what I owe to each school. The cost varies depending on how many days I'm at each school and which days actually have kyuushoku served. Usually the ES is 1,600 or so and the JHS is around 2,500. The per lunch cost is 275 yen at ES and 315 at JHS. I'm not sure why it's a different cost, because it's the same lunch and the same portions...

Preschool - 3,800 yen per month
Yana goes to a municipal preschool (hoikuen) here, which is traditionally meant for children with two working parents. However, Chizu is so small and population is declining, so they let Yana in even though Justin stays at home. Preschool here is ridiculously cheap! Especially consider this price includes a hot lunch! At first we paid 4,000 yen a month, but after January it somehow switched to an even cheaper price...not complaining!


So that's it for mandatory expenses! I'm not going to include other expenses, because it just varies so much. We spend most of the rest of my paycheck on food, as well as train rides into Tottori-shi, clothing, random school expenses (me and Yana), work parties, eating out, etc. To be honest, we don't have a lot left over each month. But we aren't purposefully frugal either (though we're trying to crack down!).