Well it depends on which era you live in… I mean they’re not the same time period = = in about 2012-2014 I’d say 1000 yen in Tokyo is better than in minimum wage in Taipei, during the same time period, of course. You don’t really commute for part time, just find a supermarket or something in the neighborhood. Plus no free hours like Taipei (a lot of companies in Taiwan request employees to be there early and do the prep for free). With 1000 yen you could get a McDonald’s set, but a lot of made in JP 100 yen stuff, and almost expired food for a reasonable price. I remember you can’t even have a McDonald’s set in Taipei with an hours pay. IMO it’s much easier than Taipei. But I know some would differ. It’s just my preference.
Your information is incredibly inaccurate. In 2014 the minimum wage was 115 in Taiwan.
In 2020 the minimum wage in Tokyo is 1013 yen. The national minimum wage in Japan is around 900. There’s barely any difference. It’s always been just 100 higher in Tokyo.
Is this a joke? Having to commute 1+ hour makes the low minimum wage more tolerable? In what universe?
You can have a McD set in Taipei in any year with the hourly rate.
Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo are where you can buy a big mac working the shortest hour in the world.
Ugh the “Japanese supermarkets are so cheap” trope. 
According to wiki, minimum hourly wage in Taiwan is 115 NTD. While a Big Mac set is 109. So I was wrong you could afford a set but not much will left. A Big Mac itself was 79 NTD.
While in japan, a single Big Mac was 310. You could easily afford 3 of them with an hours pay.
So I remembered it wrong. It’s not that we couldn’t afford a set, but we could afford some of the sets (5 out of 12) , while Japanese could have more choices with more left. And we could afford one Big Mac and have 36 NTD left while people in Tokyo could afford 3 Big Macs and still have some money left.
It depends on what quality and type of food you’re looking for. If you like milk it’s cheaper in japan. Sushi too. Well if you think 10 NTD sushi is edible than Taiwan is probably more comfortable. Banana there is awful though. Apples and strawberries are better in JP imo.
I think right now min wage is about 150. That’s 2014 min wage which was lower. Used to be worse, min wage in 2005 was 65 and a McDonald’s meal was 100. Now a McDonald’s meal is still around 120 so you still have something left, when in 2005 you needed to work 2 hours at min wage to afford a big mac meal.
It was under ma when they pushed min wage to 90 and that met with a huge amount of blowback.
There was a time when the min rate was 98 and lots of students/ graduates from decent colleges would work for 75 or less. That’s what I was talking about when I said will to fight… it was an old topic tho.
Then it’s good that it’s cheaper now. Now you can afford 2 big macs with the minimum wage as it’s only 72 now.
Well now you can’t. A big mac in Japan is like 400 now and there’s 10% VAT.
minimum wage in Japan.
avarage wage of covinence store.
If that is your full time job, it isn’t. And I didn’t say that.
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Not sure about big mags but the fish burger is definitely SMALLER!!! 
Yup it’s very different now. I have no idea what there average hourly pay is in Tokyo right now.
I have 3 cousins here that shared their salaries. This is with 10+ yrs work exp
1 boy makes 35k (Works for private company fixing MRT coin ticket machines). Taichung
1 girl makes 40k/6month annual bonus (works at Cathay Bank Insurance) Taipei
1 girl makes 70k (Marketing Manager) Taipei
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Average convenient store hourly pay in Tokyo in 2014 is 1033 yen. Not far from what I remembered. A lot of my friends wouldn’t take a 1033 gig considering it’s “average”.
I heard stuff is expensive in Japan though, like a cheap ramen is 600 yen. I heard most is more than that.
Ramen is more expensive in Taiwan. Plus an hour work for one ramen sounds fair to me. And a lot of stores offer free noodle refill for one time. Also, college cafeteria is nicer and cheap too. You don’t need to be a student to use that. And I miss the nomihodai… happy hours at the bars are so much better than those in Taiwan.
I’d say if you’re not living on min wage but average wage, life has more quality in japan. If you’re living on min wage than life is probably not ideal anywhere.
Well if you count touhoku and kansai… no offense tho 
Several years ago, average hourly rate univ students got for tutoring was 350NTD, I’ve read.
What kind of engineering do you do? What’s the salary/job market like?