Tokyo named world's second happiest city for expats

If you're an expat in Japan who happens to be living in Tokyo, there's some good news for you about your location selection! A new study has ranked the capital as the second happiest city in the world for expats in 2026, beaten out only by Copenhagen in Denmark.

The rankings were compiled by international health insurance specialists William Russell, and they compared cities across happiness, safety, friendliness, quality of life and public services. Tokyo scored highly across all of the categories, earning an impressive happiness score of 6,788.

Personally I don't think Tokyo's high ranking comes as a huge surprise! Once you settle in, the city has a way of making everyday life feel smooth, and I think that's conducive to feeling happy. The public transport is super reliable, the city feels incredibly safe, and there's a sense of order that makes even a city of its size nice and easy to navigate.