Hiroshima vs Taipei for couples
Hiroshima, in Japan, and Taipei, in Taiwan, are about 1,479 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. Taipei leads on tax, healthcare and getting by in English.
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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
Close on cost: we estimate about €3,349 a month for a couple living centrally in Hiroshima and €3,362 in Taipei.
Taxes
Taipei has the lighter tax load: Taiwan is in our low to medium tax tier, Japan in our high tax tier.
Climate
Taipei is 8°C warmer on average over the year: 23°C against 15°C in Hiroshima. Hiroshima is drier, with about 1,857 mm of rain a year against 2,734 mm in Taipei (32% less).
Safety
Close: Japan scores 80 out of 100 on safety and Taiwan 82.
Healthcare
Taipei has the stronger healthcare: Taiwan scores 86 out of 100 on healthcare, 6 points above Japan (80).
Internet
Close: about 160 Mbps median fixed download in Hiroshima and about 170 Mbps in Taipei.
Language
Main languages: Japanese in Hiroshima; Mandarin in Taipei. English goes further in Taipei (some English) than in Hiroshima (limited English).
Residency and visas
Both are rated possible, with conditions for long-term residency. Taiwan has a self-funded route from about $5,100 a month in income; we track no income-based route for Japan. For short visits, 71 of 198 passports can enter Japan visa-free and 67 can enter Taiwan.
Which one fits a couple
On the factors we measure, Taipei leads on tax (low to medium tax against high tax), healthcare (86 against 80 out of 100) and getting by in English (some English against limited English), and Hiroshima leads on none of them. What our data does not cover can still tip it toward Hiroshima: jobs, family nearby, or simply which one each of you prefers after a visit.
Climate can pull the two of you apart too: a partner who wants warmth leans toward Taipei (23°C on average), while one who minds the heat leans toward Hiroshima (15°C), and whoever minds rain will prefer Hiroshima (1,857 mm a year against 2,734 mm).
Size differs too: Hiroshima is a large city (1 to 5 million people) and Taipei a major one (over 5 million people).
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