I mean, first of all, Japan as a whole has lower cost of living than the US (in term of absolute value, not percentage of income). And from my personal experie

I mean, first of all, Japan as a whole has lower cost of living than the US (in term of absolute value, not percentage of income). And from my personal experience, certain things like eating out and hotels are particularly more expensive in the US than the baseline. > Even if you used a 1 USD = 100 JPY exchange rate instead of the real one Well, if we use this.. their website currently lists Big Mac as 450 yen, which isn't that different from 4.x USD price that covers majority of the US.