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The story
A poster paying ¥130,000 in rent wrote on 5channel’s News VIP board that “as long as there’s a convenience store, I’d be fine living in the countryside.” In response, other users offered a string of reality checks, including “there’s no way you’re getting an auto-locked, newly-built 1LDK for ¥40,000” and “the more rural it gets, the more a car becomes essential, and that adds transportation costs too.” Some pointed out that low rent isn’t only about location — the region’s low minimum wage also affects how cheaply the buildings themselves are constructed — exposing a gap between the “rural life” the poster imagined and the actual state of the rental market.
What people said
Honestly, as long as there's a convenience store nearby, I'm fine living in the countryside
I'm paying ¥130,000 rent right now — how much cheaper could it get out there?
And as long as Amazon delivers next-day, that's fine too
Don't really need anything else
Saitama's the only option then
They've got an Amazon warehouse there, orders arrive within 12 hours
Wait, really? Even out in the countryside…?
Budget at least ¥50,000
You're expecting too much from rural living
An auto-locked 1LDK apartment is basically a nice single-person building to begin with
That kind of thing just doesn't exist in the countryside, and definitely not for ¥40,000 lol
At ¥40,000 you're not getting auto-lock, and you're probably not getting a 1LDK either
Eh, I don't really care about that
I only ever shower anyway, I just hate old fixtures and old rooms
My current place is only about 5 years old
Do you even need auto-lock?
Even a place built 5 years ago is tough to find for ¥40,000, even a studio
My income doesn't change no matter where I go, so the local minimum wage doesn't matter to me
It's because the minimum wage there is low
Landlords have to keep rent cheap to match it
So the buildings get built cheap too
OP's assumption that 'it's cheap because it's rural' is about geography, but
for the people actually working there, geography doesn't factor in
which means the buildings themselves have to be cheap
I get that
But the minimum wage thing doesn't really matter to me
I'm not planning to actually get a job and work there anyway
Re: #65
That's fine by me
But would a convenience store even exist in a place that rural…
There are Zennissyoku chain stores (a regional grocery co-op chain) for that
You planning to commute there?
You'll need to factor in transportation costs too
If you said that to an actual country local, they'd snap at you for acting like those are reasonable conditions…
Can you handle a bus every two hours, with the last one around 6 PM?
There were probably tens of thousands of people thinking the same thing as OP during COVID
That demand alone probably filled up most of the good, cheap-because-it's-rural properties
You're probably better off just staying where you are for good
I see… if I just went smaller, there are places under ¥120,000 even in the city, but… I see
Re: #85
So you're saying the countryside is mostly 1K units?
Guess I'll just have to look in the suburbs for something around ¥60-70,000…
Honestly, ¥120,000 for a newish 1LDK in Umeda is actually pretty cheap given current market rates
But still, high rent puts real pressure on daily life, especially when you're self-employed
There are plenty of 2DK units (two rooms plus a dining-kitchen)
The kind couples or young families with small kids live in
I've almost never seen a 1LDK out there
A 2DK means it's probably fairly old, right?
As long as it's been fully renovated and looks clean inside, I'm okay with that, but…
Mine's a 2DK too
Rent's at least ¥40,000 with a parking space included
But it's 30 years old
Though there's not even a vending machine within walking distance…
Not being able to drink would be too rough, no way
Sorry, I know this might sound rude, but I have to ask honestly — how do you even live out there… how do you do your shopping?
Then maybe you should just stay in Umeda?
I think that rent includes the convenience factor
Well, it won't get dramatically cheaper, but you could consider Nara — places like Saidaiji, Yamatokoriyama, or Ikoma, the Osaka commuter-town area
I underestimated car-less rural living myself as a college freshman too
But the stress of not being able to go where I wanted, when I wanted, was brutal — I got my license and bought a used car right away
Maybe I am asking for too much and should just stay in Umeda…
I mean, any area where I wouldn't struggle to shop even at night would work, not necessarily a convenience store specifically…
Re: #100
Sorry, I guess I just vaguely assumed that much would be available just because it's rural
I think you should recognize that saying 'a convenience store is enough' only comes from currently being in an environment where you can go anywhere you want, anytime
Once you actually move there, it's completely different
For small things, like suddenly craving Gyoza no Ohsho (a fried-rice-and-gyoza chain) and there's not one nearby
Or having to worry about the last train home when you're out drinking with friends
You need to be prepared for things like that
Is the inside still from back then? Or is it a fully renovated unit?
Re: #113
Yeah, that's true, I guess…
Not being able to eat out when I want to might be stressful…
In Umeda you can eat out pretty much anywhere, 24 hours a day
If I moved to the countryside I was thinking of buying an electric bike, but I guess even that wouldn't be enough?
When I renovated two of my units into 'designer' style places
I got a ton of weird inquiries
Stuff like 'I'll go elsewhere if it's this price, lower it'
Or 'I came from Tokyo and expected it to be cheaper, lower it'
Or 'I work remote and want to keep a cat'
Plenty of people post videos about it
Are there newish auto-locked 1LDKs? → No
Maybe you'd have a shot in a college town, that's about it
No, I mean there are some, but I meant more like a town that's at least somewhat developed rather than the super-rural image you get from videos — figured ¥40,000 might work there…
Re: #106
So it's not about ¥40,000 not going far enough, it's that newish auto-locked units just don't exist in the first place…
I'd be fine with an old building too, as long as it's been fully renovated inside
Sounds like you're picturing a commuter town
You might find something if you search carefully enough
Well, there's no demand for it, so it can't be helped
Re: #122
In a commuter town or the suburbs you don't strictly need a car, but
it's still rough in summer or on rainy days
You can put one in yourself for around ¥30,000 — wouldn't that work?
Isn't 'auto-lock' here referring to the shared entrance auto-lock, not your own door?
Ah, that's the one, huh
But you occasionally see people on VIP making threads about getting locked out of the entrance — is entrance auto-lock even necessary?
Feels like just locking your own room should be enough
Thinking about it more, crime rates are probably low in the countryside anyway, so is a shared-area auto-lock even necessary?
Re: #146
I'm not totally clear on where the line is, but yeah, that's basically it
So the second- or third-largest city in a low-population prefecture is probably the ideal spot
These days, if you've got masked palm civets showing up, you've got bears, boars, and deer showing up too
Background and Key Points of This Debate
What the thread was really arguing about was the assumption itself that “rural = cheap rent.” One point raised was that low rent isn’t just about location (a geographic factor) — it’s also that buildings themselves are built cheaply to match the area’s low minimum wage. Auto-locked, newly-built 1LDK units are essentially urban properties aimed at single renters, and since there’s almost no supply of them in rural areas, commenters repeatedly pushed back on the idea that you could keep those features while cutting rent. The other sticking point was a mismatch in what “rural” even means: the poster was picturing something more like suburbs within walking distance of a convenience store, while other posters described a lifestyle built around buses running only a few times a day, a car being mandatory, and having to plan around the last train home — leading to a lot of talking past each other. A common misconception the thread called out is assuming that cheap rent alone means urban-level building specs; commenters repeatedly pointed out that the combination of “¥40,000 rent” and “auto-locked, newly-built 1LDK” essentially doesn’t exist in rural Japan.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed VIP) thread “I Want to Live in the Countryside.”
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