How This Site Started
In 2018, Brian moved from London to Tokyo for a tech job. He found an apartment on Suumo in Setagaya — a 1K for ¥82,000 that looked great in photos. What the photos didn't show was the 1985 construction date, the single-pane windows, or the north-facing balcony that never dried his laundry. His first August electricity bill was ¥19,400. His apartment hit 31°C indoors despite the AC running 14 hours a day. He thought he was doing something wrong.
He wasn't doing anything wrong. He just didn't know that Japanese apartment insulation is, in many buildings, theoretical. He didn't know that south-facing matters. He didn't know that a ¥95,000 apartment in a 2017 building would have cost ¥8,000 less per month in utilities and been dramatically more comfortable.
Meanwhile, Mei moved from Singapore to Tokyo in 2019. She thought she understood humidity. Singapore is literally on the equator. But Singapore is also air-conditioned everywhere — offices, malls, buses, trains. Tokyo in August is humid, and then you walk into a non-air-conditioned local train car, or a building where the AC is set to 28°C "for energy conservation," and you realize that humidity without constant AC is a different beast entirely.
Brian and Mei met at a meetup for English-speaking expats in Tokyo in 2020. They started comparing notes. Both had made expensive mistakes choosing apartments. Both had learned about kerosene heating, mold prevention, and the critical importance of balcony orientation the hard way. They wondered: why isn't there a guide that connects climate to apartment choice?
There wasn't. So they made one.
The Team
Brian Okafor
Moved from London to Tokyo in 2018. Lived in three Tokyo apartments — Setagaya, Koenji, and finally Shinagawa — before relocating to Osaka in 2023. Pays roughly half the rent he paid in Tokyo for a newer, better-insulated apartment. Still checks humidity percentages before leaving home. Writes most of the cost analysis and city comparison content.
Mei Lin
Moved from Singapore to Tokyo in 2019, thinking she knew tropical humidity. She didn't. Survived two Tokyo summers before relocating to Sapporo in 2022. Now pays ¥68,000 for a 2LDK with mountain views and hasn't used her AC more than ten days in a summer since. Handles the health and wellness content, and the survey coordination.
Tom Brennan
From Melbourne, survived four Tokyo summers in a row without leaving the country once. Tracks his utility bills in a spreadsheet that's honestly impressive. Contributed the detailed monthly cost breakdowns and the insulation analysis. Currently apartment-hunting in Fukuoka with a very specific set of requirements about AC placement.
What We Are (and Aren't)
Let's be clear about what this site is. We're a small editorial project run by foreigners who live in Japan. We write about our own experiences and the experiences of expats we've surveyed. We share utility bill data. We explain how climate affects apartment life. We don't do anything else.
We're not immigration lawyers. We can't help with visas, residence status, or the Certificate of Eligibility process. We're not real estate agents. We don't find apartments for people, we don't arrange viewings, and we don't have relationships with landlords or management companies.
We don't sell real estate. We don't take money from cities or tourism boards to promote them. We don't publish sponsored content from apartment search sites. Our revenue comes from a downloadable spreadsheet (the Japan Relocation Cost Calculator, $19) and occasional affiliate links to services we've actually used — clearly marked, always.
The data on this site comes from two sources: our own utility bills and receipts, and a survey we run annually with expats across Japan. In 2025, we had 54 respondents across 8 cities. We ask about rent, electricity, gas, water, heating type, apartment size, building age, and general satisfaction with their climate situation. The responses are anonymous and voluntary.
We update the numbers when we get new data. You can see exactly what we've changed and when in our corrections log. If you spot something that looks wrong, let us know. We actually read the emails.
Our Philosophy
Moving to Japan is hard enough without climate surprises. The visa paperwork, the language barrier, the cultural adjustments — those get all the attention. But where you live determines your daily comfort in ways that are just as important. A south-facing balcony doesn't sound like a life-changer until you've had a north-facing one and watched your laundry mold. An insulated apartment doesn't seem critical until you've paid ¥18,000 to keep a room at 27°C.
We believe in specific numbers over vague advice. "Hot and humid" is useless. "78% humidity in August with electricity bills of ¥12,000–¥18,000" is useful. We write like we're explaining this to a friend over coffee — direct, occasionally sarcastic, honest about the downsides.
And we don't use travel-blog clichés. Nothing is "nestled." Nothing is a "hidden gem." We won't tell you to "immerse yourself" or "discover the magic." We'll tell you that Sapporo is cold but the rent is cheap, and that Tokyo is amazing if you can handle August, and that Osaka is louder than you expect but the takoyaki makes up for it.
Get in Touch
Have a question about a city? Want to share your own utility bill data? Spotted an error? We'd genuinely like to hear from you. We're small enough that we read every email.
For media inquiries, partnership requests, or data usage permissions, email hey@nipponclimat.com.