A lot of it is due to the Japanese people generally not wanting to live off handouts (government or otherwise), so would rather work for whatever wages they can get. Something American's should relearn, IMO. Minimum wage in the US is so out of whack that local businesses in my area are virtually extinct and even national Franchises have closed shop as the cost of doing business is too high due to excessively high minimum wage.
Anyway, back to point, because of that, you don't usually have people waiting half a year+ for a good job to come along while living off the government. Instead they take the first job that comes along and keep an eye out for better opportunities.
Also, not all things are higher priced than other high cost of living areas (San Francisco for instance
). So while land is incredibly expensive, cars can be had very cheap. IE - don't even think about owning your own land (most "homeowners" rent the land their house is on - they own the house) unless you either inherit it or make well into the 6 digit after tax income range (USD equivalent). But you can easily buy a new car for under 5k with climate control, power everything, and keyless entry.
Food is one of those interesting situations. Depending on what you buy. But on average you can get a decent pre-made meal (rice + pork) from a convenience store for around 4-5 USD. Restaurants are anywhere from 8 (light meal) - 20 (heavy meal) USD for a meal at something equivalent to Denny's or IHOP. But basically when I'm there working I budget about 8-12 USD for lunch and 10-18 USD for dinner. It's not cheap (unless you go the pre-made supermarket/convenience store/fast food restaurant way), but it's not much more than say San Francisco.
And as noted, there's a lot of titles that are released in Japan that never see the light of day outside the country. Although there's been moves lately to push those products out to China, Korea, Taiwan, etc... Interactive Novel "games," hentai games, parody games, dating sims, "cute" games, Guro games, if-you-can-think-of-it-they-have-it games. Many of which probly won't sell more than 10-30k units.
Basically try to imagine the gaming industry here making games on a porno budget with similar sell through numbers.
And Squillian, I can show some pics of where I worked, but I don't work in the tech industry in Japan. Work tech related stuff in the US, but in Japan, I help out my step-father's company (Metal recycling, which includes recycling of computers and electronics). Not an area of work I'm entirely fond of, but the pay is great since I get an under the table cut of whatever I'm working on. I make in 3 months there more than what I make in 9 months in the states, without having to pay the cost of living while there (live with family). Haven't gone in almost 2 years though as I didn't want to put more of a burden on the company while it was struggling to survive during the recession. Went from making a healthy profit each month to losing hundreds of thousands of USD each month. And this was one of the most successful companies in that area. Lots of consolidation in that industry in that prefecture as many businesses went under and sold their companies way undercost to the bigger fish in the area. Finally showing some signs of recovery though so I'm heading back over this year.
It's an interesting place to visit. You have to be much more careful now days when visiting there however. Lethal violence has skyrocketed there over the past few years. Last time I went there, I arrived shortly after some guy went to Akihabara and randomly knifed people while moving through the crowd.
Regards,
SB
