300,000 RMB — what does it actually buy in Tokyo?

I ran the numbers four times. The conclusion: replacing rent with a purchase generates roughly half a down payment over five years.

My daughter started her master's in Tokyo in fall 2025. I split the four-year horizon (2.5-year master's + 0.5-year buffer + 1 potential year staying in Japan) into two scenarios. Renting: about ¥5.4M total. Buying: a down payment of ¥6-7M. The gap is only ¥1-2M, and at the end of the buying scenario you walk away with the down payment plus appreciation.

Mr. Sato walked me through Nakano, Itabashi, and Kita — all in the ¥70-75M range for a 1K used apartment. We picked a 2008-build elevator unit on the west side of Nakano: 5th floor, south-facing, ¥72M. Down payment of about ¥6M (300k RMB), 30-year mortgage with SMBC, ¥160k monthly payment, ¥90k expected rent. The ¥70k/month gap I cover myself — which equals the living-cost transfer I would have sent her anyway. So her living in our apartment means I no longer need a separate transfer.

Two months after closing, she moved in. From month 14 she was preparing for work, and we shifted to renting it to another Chinese student family at ¥92k/month. We'll re-evaluate at year five. Currently the property has appreciated 4.8% (West Nakano, H1 2026), and the net yield is 4.6% — annualized at 9.4%. That's better than my mainland yield products, and her education got handled along the way.

Shared with client authorization (Mr. Y is anonymized; figures reflect numbers the client provided). Mortgage payment / rent / appreciation are the actual state of this single transaction as of April 2026 and do not represent typical client outcomes. FX assumed at 1 RMB = 20 JPY; the actual rate at purchase varied.