Japan begins breathing taxes!!!

Seeing as I just bought my wife's engagement ring and our wedding bands in Shinjuku (Tokyo) a little while ago, this is not good news...

Tokyo world's most expensive city; Osaka No. 4 in survey

Monday, June 14, 2004 at 10:14 JST
LONDON — Tokyo remains the world's most expensive city, according to the latest cost of living survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting released Monday.

London was ranked 2nd, Moscow 3rd, with Osaka and Hong Kong rounding out the top five most expensive cities, while Asuncion in Paraguay is the least expensive city in the survey of 144 urban areas.

American cities were absent from the top 10 due to the weak U.S. dollar, with the most expensive U.S. city, New York, dropping two spots from last year to 12.

The survey, drawn up twice a year, ranks cost of living for foreign workers, not local residents, and is used primarily by multinational companies to determine pay for expatriate employees.

"The euro appreciated more than 11 percent in the last six months," said Marie-Laurence Sepede, senior researcher at Mercer. "So that made European cities go up and U.S. cities drop."

Sepede noted that while U.S. cities got cheaper in relation to those in Europe and Asia, the rankings among American cities remained similar to previous years, with Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco all placing high on the list.

Also notable was the climb of Australian and New Zealand cities up the list, a shift caused by those nations' strong currencies. Sydney moved from 67 last year to 20 this year, and Auckland, New Zealand climbed 35 places to 80.

The rest of the top 20 remained fairly constant, although Paris, Vienna and Istanbul made their first appearances so high in the rankings.

The survey took into consideration 250 criteria, including the cost of utilities, food and entertainment.

While the survey looked at a range of living standards, Sepede said the study was most representative of the expenses of people working for big international corporations and maintaining fairly high standards of living.

Mercer said the continued appreciation of the euro against the U.S. dollar could eventually force companies to move employees and reorganize.

"Mainly, the depreciation of the dollar makes it cheaper to send employees to American cities," said Jackie Barber, a spokeswoman for the survey. (Wire reports)