5x price increase, small apartments (instead of houses), higher babysitter costs -- these are all downsides.
What is better in Tokyo than in, say, Austin, TX?
Its high density and superb transportation mean you don't need a car -- go almost everywhere with your kids by walking, bicycle, or extremely frequent convenient train. Riding in the car sucks for kids (and adults, IMO).
There is access to all kinds of world-class health care, and all of it is free for your kids.
Tons of great educational institutions from the best universities down to preschool (and although the preschools can take some time to get into due to capacity, they are by and large terrific).
Great food of virtually every variety except Mexican. Most of Tokyo is extremely clean, safe and crime-free. Multiple always-open industry-redefining convenience stores, same-day Amazon prime deliveries, synchronous 1Gbps fiber optic Internet connections for $50 a month, a regular taxi system that is better than the Uber you always hear Americans raving about, one-hour cold beer delivery... in other words, the kind of fundamental lifestyle convenience level that is good when you are single, but becomes way more important once you have kids.
Source: I live in Tokyo with my wife, 2-year-old, and 2-month-old.
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[1] http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japans-fert... Tokyo has the lowest fertility rate in Japan by far, hovering just above 1.0.
Tokyo is pretty awesome, but you do have to be able to afford it. I would assume it's a lot more expensive to live here than Austin, TX, but I know it is cheaper (and IMO way better for raising kids) than say, San Francisco.
But fine, let's consider just Ruriko's family: they are mostly in Ogaki, not in Tokyo.
I understand that Tokyo has some advantages (any city in the world would have some advantages), but overall it seems to be a sub-optimal choice.
I'm not against Tokyo in particular. Patrick moving to NYC, Washington DC, Singapore, London etc. would also surprise me.
I never lived in Tokyo and it was interesting to learn from veidr that Tokyo could be safe and comfortable for a family [that has significant income].
Let me know when you visit Tokyo. I'd be happy to show you around. Any HN user is welcome to ask me for Tokyo advice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_most_liveable_cities#M...
Tokyo is #2.
