Japan vs Taiwan

Japan cost of livingJapanTaiwan cost of livingTaiwan
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Visa-free entry is 90 days against 90. On the 9 measures both countries carry, Taiwan leads 2.

The difference at a glance

Green favours Taiwan. Country figures. Cities inside one country differ, often by more than the countries differ from each other.

Head to head

Each row is named for the thing more of which is better, so a longer bar always wins.

JapanTaiwan
90Longer visa-free staydays, typical Western passport90
45%Lower income taxtop personal rate, not an effective rate40%
84.0Longer life expectancyyears at birth80.8
6 monthsLonger nomad visamax stay, months24 months

Longer is better. Bar length is the rank among all countries we hold that measure for, not a share of the pair.

Every country measure, side by side

National figures throughout. What a city inside either country costs, and how its own sex ratio runs, is the table below this one.

National men per 100 womenthe city figure is above104.2n/aโ€”
Visa-free entrylongest headline entry for a typical Western passport90900 days
Top personal income tax rateheadline rate, not an effective rate45%40%5 points
English proficiencyadult proficiency score446n/aโ€”
Homicide rateper 100,000 per year0.2n/aโ€”
Life expectancyyears at birth84.080.83.3 years
GDP per capitacurrent USD$55,422n/aโ€”
Female labour force participationno direction is asserted56%52%โ€”
Fertility ratebirths per woman1.150.69โ€”
Obesity, womenage-standardised3.7%n/aโ€”
Mean height, womenadults158 cm / 5โ€ฒ2โ€ณ161 cm / 5โ€ฒ3โ€ณโ€”
Political stability0 to 100, higher is more stable85/100n/aโ€”
Low corruption0 to 100, higher is cleaner75/100n/aโ€”
Digital nomad visamax stay; headline route, not a guarantee6 months24 months4.00ร—
Never-married women, 20โ€“39census or survey, years differ between countries52.8%36.4%โ€”
Main languagethe city may differJapaneseMandarin Chineseโ€”

Data updated August 6, 2026.

Every city we track in both

A national sex ratio is an average of places that do not resemble each other. These are the cities behind it.

Japan

CityMen/100 womenEssentials
Kobemunicipality level84.2$1,167
Fukuokacity level90.2$883
Sapporocity level92.8$968
Osakacity level95.6$995
Kyotocity level96.1$879
Hiroshimacity level97.8
Sendaicity level98.0$886
Tokyocity level99.8$1,306
Nagoyacity level102.9$940
Yokohamacity level103.6$988

Taiwan

CityMen/100 womenEssentials
Taipei Citycity level97.9$977
Taichung Citycity level104.1$689
Taoyuan Citycity level105.4$728
Kaohsiung Citycity level106.2$696
Hsinchu Citycity level106.8$718
Tainan Citycity level108.3$681

Japan spans 19.4 points across its 10 tracked cities, Taiwan 10.4 across 6. The national figure is the average of neither.

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