Is it *really* that expensive to raise kids in Japan?

If you have children, have you ever reflected on how expensive (or inexpensive!) it is to raise your kids here in Japan as opposed to back home? A recent tweet I saw got me thinking about this very topic.

Pic Credit: Note Thanun/Unsplash

I've scrubbed the Twitter username of the tweet author for their own privacy, but you can see it below:

The tweet in question. While everyone is entitled to their opinion I did find this tweet a bit strongly worded and not necessarily true to the experiences of all expats.

Now while I do think maybe in some areas it might be expensive to raise kids, on the whole where we live in Niigata it's infinitely cheaper raising our family than it would be in either Australia or the US. These are just my personal thoughts, but some reasons why I feel like it's cheaper to raise children in Japan than back home.

Healthcare

Both Japan and my home country of Australia have public health care, which means that healthcare is affordable + accessible. My husband is American, though, and the healthcare system there leaves a lot to be desired for the average Joe. When my daughter had asthma when she was younger, we never once worried about having to rush her to hospital here. I think in the US it'd be a lot different.

Childcare

We sent our children to a local kodomoen when they were pre-elementary, and it was about ¥4000 - ¥5000 a month. In comparison to what my friends back home pay for pre-school aged care ($500 AUD or more a month), it's a no brainer that I'm glad my children have grown up here.

Getting around

Back home it's common that children get dropped to school by their parents. In my husband's home country it's a school bus set-up, because a lot of people live sprawled out. Here, my kids usually walk to school, because a) it's safe enough to do so, and b) it's close enough to do so. I'm extremely thankful for both of those things! We only have one car here, which is also something that we probably wouldn't be able to get away with in either of our home countries.

Affordable housing

We only rent at the moment, but our monthly rent here wouldn't even be enough for weekly rent (in a similar sized home) in a major capital city in Australia. If we wanted to buy a property here, that's so much more affordable as well. I find that also gives us flexibility in how much we need to work – for instance, I only have a part time job here, whereas back home I'd 100% need to be working full time alongside my husband to make ends meet.

A less consumer-driven approach

Maybe this is also by virtue of the fact we live in the countryside here, but I don't feel like people are anywhere near as materialistic or consumer-driven as they are back home. There's not as much of a focus on things like brand-name everything, and I think that means my kids don't get caught up in that mentality, either.

If you have kids here, do you think on the whole it's cheaper raising them here than in your country of origin?