Tokyo residents living in Coffin like cramped living units for $568 a month!

Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world.  Osaka is the second most.  Japan is certainly not a country for the faint-hearted!  Here is a list of the most expensive cities in the world.

10. Geneva
9. Caracas
8. Paris
7. Zurich
6. Singapore
5. Melbourne
4. Oslo
3. Sydney
2. Osaka
1. Tokyo

The situation in the city is so crazy it seems that some people are living in what are kinda like “Coffin Units”.  The are called  (“geki-sema share house” or 激せまシャアハウス in Japanese) – but are extremely cramped units.  People are paying ¥55,000 (US $586) to live in stacked, “coffin-like rooms”!

Some people think that these businesses which sell the geki-sema share houses are deceiving as there are two bedroom apartment available in Tokyo for ¥55,000 a month.

In a news program, the crew met a couple who lives in one of these units.

The news crew interviewed a 24 year-old entrepreneur and 19-year-old aspiring actress, both of whom lived in spaces that measured less than two tatami mats (the famous tatami mat being a modular reference to measuring floor area, coming in at approximately 1.5 square meters or 16 square feet in Tokyo). (link)

Here are some pictures of the coffin rooms. (courtesy: kotaku)

“Locker room units”
Staying in just enough place
Place for bed, clothes, and a TV
This one has just enough place to sleep.
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