The Real Cost of Owning a Car in Japan (and Why Tokyo Ended It)
In the previous article, I described how ¥160,000 brought home a kei car — complete with a 2-year shaken, a name change, even free winter tires. Sounds cheap. And for the purchase price, it was. This article is about what happened after.
¥160,000 Wasn’t the Cheapest Option
Let me be clear from the start: ¥160,000 isn’t the lowest price you can find. I chose that number because I thought it was fair for the car’s condition. If you want something cheaper, you can — even ¥100,000 exists, usually also including a 2-year shaken.
But there’s an honest trade-off: the cheaper the car, the older the model is likely to be. If you’re the type who doesn’t care much and just needs something to drive, a cheaper car is perfectly fine. But if you’re planning to use the car for the longer term — even though I personally ended up only using mine for about 1.5 years — I’d suggest choosing a newer car with lower mileage, still with a 2-year shaken. The upfront price difference pays for itself later in much lower maintenance costs.
The Monthly Costs Everyone Forgets
Once the car is in your hands, don’t stop counting at the purchase price. There’s a list of recurring costs that’s easy to overlook:
- Car insurance — I used SBI損保, about ¥8,000/month, with good coverage.
- Oil changes — routine, and it comes straight out of pocket.
- Car washes — small, but recurring if you care about the car’s condition.
- Filling tire air — usually free, but still something you have to handle yourself.
Each one looks small on its own. But added together, this routine maintenance is what actually decides whether that “cheap” car stays cheap in the long run.
What Makes Tsukuba Feel Cheap: Parking
Of all the cities I’ve lived in across Japan, Tsukuba is by far the cheapest for parking. To me, anything under ¥5,000/month already counts as cheap — and in Tsukuba, I paid ¥3,300/month.
That number only became meaningful once I moved away. Living in other cities in Japan made me realize: parking that cheap isn’t normal. It was a privilege specific to Tsukuba that only became visible after I’d left it.
The Limbo Months in Kawasaki
During my 研修 (training) period, I lived in a monthly mansion in Kawasaki — but parking a car wasn’t allowed there. So I kept the car in Tsukuba instead, parked at a friend’s apartment, paying the monthly parking fee directly to that friend.
Why not just sell it from the start? Simple: I still didn’t know for certain where I’d be assigned to work after the 研修 ended. So I chose to hold onto the car first, until I was completely sure where I’d be moving to.
Once Certainty Arrived, the Car Left
The moment my work placement was confirmed — and it turned out to be Tokyo — I immediately looked for a way to sell it. This time I sold it to a company (not a private sale, unlike when I bought it).
The decision was simple once you looked at the numbers: parking in Tsukuba was ¥3,300/month, while in Tokyo it could run ¥20,000/month or more — the same car, with parking costs 6 times higher, purely because of the address. Keeping the car in Tokyo no longer made any sense.
The Lesson
The purchase price of a car is only the smallest number in the whole story. What actually determines whether a car is “cheap” or not is the total cost of ownership per year, at the address where you live. A car that makes sense in Tsukuba can become a burden in Tokyo — and that’s exactly why this one eventually had to go.