Cost of Living in Tokyo: What a Month Cost the Two of Us

Tokyo has a reputation for being expensive. Half of it is true.

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In this guide 11 sections

Our apartment was the most we've ever paid for a month anywhere. Then we sat down at Sushiro, ate plate after plate of sushi, and the bill for two came to about 5,000 yen. That's around $31.

Cream and I lived in Shinjuku for a month and worked from our apartment. Below is what each part of that month cost us, plus what a longer stay costs, so you can work out your own number.

How Much Does It Cost to Live in Tokyo? My Quick Answer

Our month in Tokyo cost the two of us roughly 500,000 to 560,000 yen. That's about $3,200 to $3,600, or around $1,600 to $1,800 each.

Rent was more than half of it. Food, trains, and phones were the cheap part.

You can easily spend less than we did. We filmed a lot of our meals for YouTube, so we ate out more than we needed to. A cheaper apartment, more meals from the supermarket, or both, brings two people to roughly 315,000 to 470,000 yen a month. That's about $2,000 to $3,000.

Finding a place to stay? Rent is the line that moves your budget most. Search places to stay across Tokyo by area and compare prices for your dates.

Category	What it cost us	Our month for two
Rent (one-month Airbnb, Shinjuku)	Wi-Fi and a washer-dryer included	about 315,000 yen ($2,000)
One meal a day at home	7-Eleven or the grocery store, 1,500 to 2,500 yen for two	about 47,000 to 70,000 yen ($300 to $450)
One meal a day out	sushi once a week, chain restaurants, cafes	about 110,000 to 140,000 yen ($700 to $900)
Trains	Suica on our phones, airport trips included	about 19,000 yen ($120)
Phone	two 30-day unlimited eSIMs	about 16,500 yen ($105)
Total		about 500,000 to 560,000 yen ($3,200 to $3,600)

We paid in dollars at about 157 yen to the dollar in May 2026. The rate was about 158 in October 2026, so the yen prices above still convert about the same.¹

Three Tokyo Budgets for Two

Our month is one way to live in Tokyo. Here's how the same city looks on a tighter budget and a looser one. The lean and comfortable columns are my math, built from what we spent and the 2026 rent and hotel prices further down.

	Lean	Like us	Comfortable
Where you sleep	Furnished monthly apartment in Nakano, Suginami, or Setagaya	One-month Airbnb in Shinjuku	A business hotel for the month
Rent	80,000 to 140,000 yen	about 315,000 yen	about 430,000 yen
Food	supermarket dinners, a chain meal a few times a week	supermarket dinners, sushi weekly, lots of chains	like us, with more meals out
Trains and phone	about 40,000 yen	about 35,500 yen	about 35,500 yen
Month for two	about 180,000 to 280,000 yen ($1,150 to $1,750)	about 500,000 to 560,000 yen ($3,200 to $3,600)	about 610,000 yen and up ($3,850+)
Who it's for	Nomads staying two months or more who cook	A first month in Tokyo, central and easy	Shorter stays, or anyone who wants daily cleaning and a front desk

Living alone? Rent doesn't split, so a solo month our way comes to roughly 400,000 to 440,000 yen (about $2,550 to $2,800). The lean version works out around 130,000 to 200,000 yen ($800 to $1,250).

Rent: The Expensive Part

We booked a one-month Airbnb at unito residence Shinjuku Wakamatsu for about $2,000. That's about 315,000 yen. It was our most expensive stay so far, and we'd book it again.

The price covered everything. There were no separate bills, the Wi-Fi was great, and we had our own washer and dryer, so laundry cost us nothing. We worked from the apartment every day at a little table for two, so we never paid for a coworking space either.

It isn't big, but it was spotless and quiet, on a residential street a 15 to 20 minute walk from central Shinjuku.

What Rent Costs on a Longer Stay

A month-long Airbnb is the easy way in, and you pay for that. On a normal lease, a small one-room apartment (under 30 square meters) in Tokyo's 23 wards averaged 114,339 yen a month in August 2026, with management fees.² That's about $720. A couple-size place of 30 to 50 square meters averaged 185,268 yen, about $1,170. Both were up about 10% on a year earlier.

The catch is getting a lease. Most need a deposit, key money (a non-refundable gift to the landlord), an agency fee, and a guarantor company, which often adds up to four to six months of rent before you move in. Leases usually run two years. That's why most people staying a few months book a furnished monthly apartment or an Airbnb instead. We went the Airbnb route, and these are our tips for renting a monthly Airbnb in Tokyo, from spotting a legal listing to checking in.

Rent by Area

Where you live moves your budget more than anything else. These are typical prices for a furnished one-room or one-bedroom monthly apartment in 2026, according to a Tokyo furnished-rental agency:¹⁴

Area	Furnished monthly rent	Who it suits
Shinjuku, Shibuya, Minato	120,000 to 220,000 yen	A first long stay: trains, food, and nightlife on your doorstep
Chiyoda, Chuo (Tokyo Station, Ginza)	130,000 to 250,000 yen	Business trips and quiet nights in the very center
Nakano, Suginami, Setagaya	80,000 to 140,000 yen	Longer, cheaper stays in local neighborhoods a short train from Shinjuku or Shibuya

We paid more than the top of the Shinjuku range, which is the price of booking a nicely set-up Airbnb for just one month. Hotels are the other option. A Tokyo business hotel averaged 14,300 yen a night over the year to June 2026, before tax, and the central wards ran higher.¹⁵ That's about 430,000 yen for a month, so a monthly rental wins on price for any long stay.

For a trip of a week or two, a hotel is simpler.

Food: Cheaper Than You Think

Food is where Tokyo surprised us. We ate well for a month, and it never felt expensive.

Dinner at Home

Most nights we picked up dinner from 7-Eleven or the supermarket near our apartment. A bento box, a salad, some snacks, and drinks came to about 1,500 to 2,500 yen for both of us. That's $10 to $15. For a cheap dinner that still feels like a real meal, grilled salmon and rice tops our healthy 7-Eleven picks.

Supermarket bento boxes near us were mostly 400 to 600 yen each.

Eating Out

We had sushi about once a week, and we ate at a lot of chain restaurants. Japanese chains are fast, fresh, and cheap, and we loved them. These are rough prices for the two of us:

Where	What it is	About what we paid for two
Matsuya	beef bowls (gyudon)	1,100 yen ($7)
Yayoiken	traditional Japanese breakfast	2,100 yen ($13)
CoCo Ichibanya	Japanese curry	2,400 yen ($15)
McDonald's	a meal each	2,700 yen ($17)
Tenya	tempura rice bowls	4,000 yen ($25)
Sushiro	conveyor-belt sushi	5,000 to 6,200 yen ($31 to $39)
Ichiran	ramen	5,100 yen ($32)
Gyukatsu Motomura	seared beef cutlet	6,300 yen ($40)
Shogun Burger	burgers and fries	8,700 yen ($55)
Torikizoku	yakitori and drinks	9,000 yen ($57)

Two beef bowls at Matsuya for about $7 still amazes me. And a full sushi dinner for two at Sushiro for about $31 is a deal you won't find in New York. The yakitori night at Torikizoku was our priciest meal out, and that was with drinks.

Most days we ate two meals: one out, usually a place we were filming, and one from 7-Eleven. A meal out for two was mostly $15 to $40, so eating out came to roughly $700 to $900 for the month. Filming meant more meals out than we'd have eaten otherwise. If you eat out less than we did, that line shrinks quickly. We ranked every one of them in the best restaurants in Tokyo, so you know which are worth the money.

What Food Costs in Tokyo in 2026

Here are a few prices to plan around, beyond what we paid:

• A regular beef bowl at Matsuya: 480 yen, after a 20-yen rise in October 2026.⁵
• A rice ball (onigiri) at a convenience store: about 170 to 210 yen, after Lawson and 7-Eleven cut some prices in September 2026.¹³
• Consumption tax: 10% when you eat in, 8% on food you take away.⁶ Price tags usually show both, so look for the tax-included number.

Prices have been creeping up. Supermarket rice more than doubled in price during Japan's rice shortage, and a 5-kilogram bag only fell back under 3,000 yen in September 2026.¹² Even so, everyday food in Tokyo felt cheap to us next to any big US city.

Getting Around: About 19,000 Yen a Month for Two

We rode the train almost every day, and our month of trains for two came to about 19,000 yen ($120). That includes both trips to and from Narita.

We just tapped Suica in Apple Wallet and topped it up as we went. Short rides are cheap: our six stops from Wakamatsu-Kawada to Ueno-okachimachi cost 220 yen each. We also walked a lot, which is free and one of the best ways to see Tokyo.

If you'll ride the subway a lot over a few days, a Tokyo Subway Ticket covers every Tokyo Metro and Toei line. Since March 2026 it costs 1,000 yen for 24 hours, 1,500 yen for 48 hours, or 2,000 yen for 72 hours.⁴ It doesn't cover JR lines like the Yamanote. We never bought a pass, and plain Suica was all we needed for a month of getting around Tokyo. The airport is the one big fare, and the cheap train from Narita to Shinjuku costs far less than the Skyliner if you're not in a rush.

We took one taxi the whole month, on a rainy night when we had a Sushiro reservation. Taxis are roomy and the doors open for you, but the train is far cheaper.

Phone and Internet: About 16,500 Yen for Two

We landed with an Airalo eSIM already working. Then we bought SoftBank eSIMs at Narita airport, 30 days of unlimited data each, for about 16,500 yen ($105) for both phones.

Was it worth it? Barely. Two Airalo 30-day unlimited plans would have cost about $138 as of October 2026, so going local saved us about $33. Next time I'd skip the airport counter and stay on Airalo.

Home internet was part of our Airbnb, so that cost us nothing extra.

Other Costs to Plan For

We didn't pay for a gym, coworking, or utilities, because our apartment covered what we needed. If you're staying longer, or renting your own place, these are the lines to add:

• Utilities on your own lease: a one-person household in Japan spent about 13,300 yen a month on electricity, gas, and water in 2025.³
• Health insurance: short-term visitors aren't covered by Japan's national health insurance, so budget for travel medical cover. If you work on the road, compare SafetyWing's nomad insurance.
• A gym: the budget chain chocoZAP is 3,278 yen a month, tax included.¹¹ Full-size gyms cost more.
• A place to sit: Tokyo has very few free places to hang out. Cafes are quick, and restaurants want you in and out. If you can't work from home, budget for a coworking space.
• Getting there: the flight is often the single biggest cost, especially from the US. Since July 1, 2026, everyone leaving Japan pays a 3,000-yen departure tax, usually built into the ticket.¹⁰ If you're still planning, compare flights to Tokyo early.

Is Tokyo Expensive?

Tokyo is cheap to eat in and to get around, and expensive to sleep in. That's the honest answer.

Compared with a big US city, it's a bargain. As of October 2026, Numbeo's crowd-sourced data puts everyday prices in Tokyo, without rent, about 48% lower than in New York, and rent about 73% lower.⁷ Restaurants come out about 63% cheaper. That matches what we felt.

Where Tokyo gets expensive is the room. A month-long furnished stay costs far more than a normal lease, and hotels in Shinjuku aren't cheap either. If you can stay longer, or live a few stops out of the center, your budget drops a lot.

For a short trip, the flight is usually the biggest cost. Once you're in Tokyo, you can eat very well for very little.

Do You Need a Visa?

Not for a month or two. US citizens can visit Japan visa-free for up to 90 days.⁸ We used that, so the visa cost us nothing.

For longer stays, Japan has a digital nomad visa that allows up to six months. It requires an income of at least 10 million yen a year (about $63,000) and private health insurance.⁹ It suits fewer people than you'd think, so check how long you can stay in Japan and who the nomad visa really fits before you apply.

How to Spend Less in Tokyo

These would have made the biggest difference to our budget:

1. Pay less for your room. Rent was more than half of our month. A monthly apartment a few stops outside Shinjuku, or a longer stay with a lower monthly rate, is the easiest saving there is. Nakameguro is where we'd look next time, and the best neighborhoods in Tokyo for digital nomads shows what rent runs in each area.
2. Eat at the chains. Matsuya, Sushiro, and CoCo Ichibanya feed two people for less than one meal out in most US cities.
3. Eat dinner from the supermarket. Bento boxes and side dishes are cheap and fresh, and a full dinner for two cost us $10 to $15.
4. Walk. Tokyo is safe and great to walk around, day and night. Every walk is a train fare saved.
5. Skip the airport SIM. An Airalo eSIM was almost the same price and working before we landed.
6. Pay by card. We paid by card or Suica almost everywhere and barely needed cash. Japan's cash-only reputation is mostly a tourist myth, and we explain cash or card in Japan, including the one card that tops up Suica on an iPhone.

Our Verdict on the Cost of Living in Tokyo

Tokyo was our most expensive month of rent anywhere, and rent was most of what we spent. Everything else was cheaper than home. For the food, the trains, and how easy daily life is, we'd pay it again tomorrow. If you're weighing a month of work here, this is our honest take on whether Tokyo is good for digital nomads.

Next Steps for Your Tokyo Trip

• Getting around: How to Get Around Tokyo
• From the airport: Narita to Shinjuku: Skyliner or Narita Express?
• Paying for things: Cash or Card in Japan?
• Cheap sushi: Sushiro Tokyo: How to Order Conveyor Belt Sushi