Expats spend the most money in Tokyo

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A new study has discovered that Japan’s Tokyo is the most expensive city for an expat to live in. The Employment Conditions Abroad company conducted a survey where they compared the prices of daily use goods and services in 390 popular expat destinations.

Japan actually claimed more spots in the top ten, with the cities of Nagoya, Yokohama and Kobe ranking in at fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively. It is thought that Japan’s high cost of living is due to the continued growth of the yen, its strength means that foreign workers face higher costs.

Oslo ranked second in the survey, and Angola’s capital city Luanda came third. Copenhagen also made the top ten, coming in at eight. This suggests that Scandinavia is Europe’s most expensive expatriate location.

The ECA focused on comparing products that expats would likely use in their day-to-day activities, an imaginary ‘shopping cart’- “We put together a shopping cart including some 130 goods and services for expats, varying from groceries to a visit to the barber's or a garage, products expats would also purchase in their country of origin. So we are looking at the price of potatoes for an Irishman in Asia, instead of rice which is much cheaper over there”, said Josephine Wooley of the ECA.