Busan vs Hiroshima for couples
Busan, in South Korea, and Hiroshima, in Japan, are about 322 km apart. Every figure below comes from the data behind our city pages: an estimated monthly cost for a couple, tax tier, annual climate, safety, healthcare, internet speed, language and residency rules. Busan leads on getting by in English; Hiroshima on cost and safety.
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Side by side
Source: the datasets behind our city pages. Cost is our model estimate (a country-level cost index scaled for city size); tax tiers are assigned by hand from each country's top marginal income tax rate and overall tax reputation; temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages); rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals); safety and healthcare are our own country-level estimates; internet from the Ookla Speedtest Global Index; English from the EF English Proficiency Index; residency from our hand-reviewed residency dataset (not legal advice); short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset.
Factor by factor
Cost of living
Hiroshima is cheaper: we estimate about €3,349 a month for a couple living centrally, against €3,570 in Busan. That is €221 a month, or 6%, less.
Taxes
A tie: South Korea and Japan both sit in our high tax tier.
Climate
Hiroshima is 1°C warmer on average over the year: 15°C against 14°C in Busan. Busan is drier, with about 1,389 mm of rain a year against 1,857 mm in Hiroshima (25% less).
Safety
Hiroshima is the safer pick: Japan scores 80 out of 100 on safety, 8 points above South Korea (72).
Healthcare
Close: South Korea scores 82 out of 100 on healthcare and Japan 80.
Internet
Close: about 170 Mbps median fixed download in Busan and about 160 Mbps in Hiroshima.
Language
Main languages: Korean in Busan; Japanese in Hiroshima. English goes further in Busan (some English) than in Hiroshima (limited English).
Residency and visas
Both are rated possible, with conditions for long-term residency. For short visits, 62 of 198 passports can enter South Korea visa-free and 71 can enter Japan.
Which one fits a couple
If one of you puts getting by in English (some English against limited English) first, Busan comes out ahead. If the other cares more about cost (€3,349 against €3,570 a month) and safety (80 against 72 out of 100), Hiroshima does.
Climate can pull the two of you apart too: whoever minds rain will prefer Busan (1,389 mm a year against 1,857 mm).
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