Taipei vs Tokyo for couples
Taipei, in Taiwan, and Tokyo, in Japan, are about 2,100 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 cost, 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
Taipei is cheaper: we estimate about €3,362 a month for a couple living centrally, against €3,651 in Tokyo. That is €289 a month, or 8%, less.
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 7°C warmer on average over the year: 23°C against 16°C in Tokyo. Tokyo is drier, with about 1,494 mm of rain a year against 2,734 mm in Taipei (45% less).
Safety
Close: Taiwan scores 82 out of 100 on safety and Japan 80.
Healthcare
Taipei has the stronger healthcare: Taiwan scores 86 out of 100 on healthcare, 6 points above Japan (80).
Internet
Close: about 170 Mbps median fixed download in Taipei and about 160 Mbps in Tokyo.
Language
Main languages: Mandarin in Taipei; Japanese in Tokyo. English goes further in Taipei (some English) than in Tokyo (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, 67 of 198 passports can enter Taiwan visa-free and 71 can enter Japan.
Which one fits a couple
On the factors we measure, Taipei leads on cost (€3,362 against €3,651 a month), 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 Tokyo leads on none of them. What our data does not cover can still tip it toward Tokyo: 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 Tokyo (16°C), and whoever minds rain will prefer Tokyo (1,494 mm a year against 2,734 mm).
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