How Tokyo and Bangkok compare on cost, visas, working hours, weather, internet and safety. Every figure comes from our city guides and tools, checked and dated there.
Dollars and pounds at today's exchange rate. Download speeds are the typical figure from each guide, which says where it comes from: some are for the city, some for the whole country, so treat a small gap as no gap.
Rent, a coworking desk, a cheap lunch on each of 22 working days, and getting around: the same four costs our budget calculator uses. The rent figures aren't always the same kind of figure (some are furnished one-beds, some are averages across every size of flat), so read the note under each.
$1,180 to $1,390£889 to £1,050 a month
$533 to $1,310£400 to £987 a month
Designated Activities (Digital Nomad)
The catch. Six months only, with no residence card and no public health insurance. Your passport must be on Japan's list, and freelancers must clear the bar in profit, not turnover.
Destination Thailand Visa (DTV)
The catch. Since 31 August 2026 you need a criminal record certificate, and you must apply in a country where you are a citizen or permanent resident, so a border run no longer works.
See where your own income stands in every country. Check your income
A 9am to 5pm day in the employer's city, shown in local time, for today's date, so it allows for the clocks changing.
Different hours or another employer city? Use the time-zone planner
The average high in °C each month, coloured by the rule on our best-time page: green is a high of 20 to 32°C with under 150mm of rain; red is a high of 38°C or more or under 12°C, 250mm of rain or more, or 33°C or more with 150mm of rain or more. Hover over a month for its rain.
| City | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 10° | 11° | 14° | 19° | 24° | 26° | 30° | 31° | 28° | 22° | 17° | 12° |
| Bangkok | 33° | 34° | 35° | 36° | 35° | 34° | 34° | 33° | 33° | 33° | 33° | 32° |
Level 1: normal precautions
Level 1: normal precautions
The US level is for the whole country, as the State Department sets it, and some countries have stricter advice for particular regions.
From each city guide, word for word.
Salaried remote employees, or freelancers with JPY 10 million a year in profit, who want one intense six-month stint and no plan to settle. You need private health insurance arranged before you go, and a passport on the eligible list: British and American passports are on it. For a shorter trial, British visitors get 90 days on arrival and can apply for 90 more without the nomad visa. Choose where to live by rail line: an unfurnished 1K in Koenji or Shimokitazawa averages JPY 86,800 to 101,000, but furnished monthly lets cost more.
Anyone below JPY 10 million, especially freelancers with high turnover but lower profit. Anyone who wants a base to build towards residence: the nomad visa cannot be extended, gives no residence card and leads nowhere stated. In 2026 citizenship moved to ten years in practice, and permanent residence gained income, pension and B1 Japanese tests. Anyone who needs English beyond stations and hotels. Anyone who cannot take heat and rain, because June to October is hard work. And anyone hoping for a cheap Asian base: listed single-flat rents in the 23 wards averaged JPY 135,764 in August 2026, up 15 per cent in a year.
You want a genuinely world-class city on a mid-tier budget and you are willing to do paperwork. The DTV gives you five years, unlimited entries and 180 days a visit with one 180-day extension — nothing else in the region is that generous. If your work is asynchronous, your employer is foreign, your income is stable enough to leave half a million baht sitting in a bank for three months, and you are content to leave every six months, Bangkok is close to the best deal available anywhere.
You want any of this to be permanent, simple, or as cheap as the internet told you. The DTV leads nowhere — no residence, no citizenship, no accrual, just a renewal treadmill with a discretionary extension at the end of every 180 days. From 31 August 2026 you cannot even apply from Vientiane; you go home for it, with a police certificate. Stay 180 days and you are a Thai tax resident, and the remit-it-a-year-later trick died on 1 January 2024. Your landlord must file a form within 24 hours every time you re-enter the country or your next immigration appointment fails, and nobody will tell you this until it does. Vaping is flatly illegal. A post about the monarchy is a prison sentence.
Most visas want health cover for the whole stay. Compare nomad health insurance · Build your trip checklist