Hello everyone, 

Have you looked into whether this is a funded move or not?  If so you should be able to get a local move order so that the Transportion Office can arrange the move for you...instead of paying out of pocket.

Anyone have a ballpark estimate of how much it would cost to hire local movers to pack and ship our household (about 4,000 lbs) to Negishi?

$3000-$4000.. I checked into a move myself. Mine was about 3,000 lbs. It was going to run $3000 for me. Its very very expensive in Japan to hire movers. You must complete this move by yourself. The base will not help you. You can however rent one of the NEX trucks, but you would need to do this trip over and over to complete, and have enough manual helpers on both locations, to help upload and load. The good thing about the NEX truck, is it will include the toll tickets, for you to go back and forth. Its a lot cheaper if you do this move on your own, and just hire some helpers. You may be able to put up a classified on here, and say, looking for 8 strong men, to help move. $150 a day. Thats a lot cheaper, and a better way to do it. If they had 2 trucks, then you could go that route also. Maybe 1 truck/1 van... get all the small stuff in the van.. Its atleast an option.

I've estimated I would lose around $500 a month.

I agree you would, especially in today's current yen amount. I have heard some people say they actually LOSE money living offbase. Thats RIDICULOUS! They just dont know how to breakdown the costs - versus what the govt gives them monthly. It also could be when they moved in, they picked a house that was over their ceiling. Thats there own fault! But yes, you will lose money. What you need to figure out, is how you will save money living onbase, versus living offbase. There are several expenses, like travel times, possibly buying things at local convenience stores, that you would more than likely not do anymore, and just buy from the Negishi Family Mart.

Its very hard to adjust back to a lower salary once you have gotten used to that extra $500, that you seem to save each month. When I was in the navy also, my wife used to be very cautious over the utilities, we didnt keep the air on, ever.. We only had 1 of the air conditioning units, and mostly we just used plug in vans. In the winter, we used kerosene heaters. The costs stayed really really down. I think we were making out over $600 a month extra, but we lived this way. There are some people I know, that live the complete opposite. They leave their air running, even though no one is home. In the winter, they used the heater units, constantly running, to keep room temperature. They would get several hundred dollar bills, but they didnt care. Govt was giving them the money, and they wanted to live comfortably..

That is another semi benefit if you did move onbase. You could use as much electric / gas you need, and not worry about it. What you cant do is control when it starts and when it finishes. The govt does that when you live onbase. Some people HATE that! Trust me. When it starts getting really really hot in the summer time, they wont allow air conditioning, for a few weeks after then they should of allowed it.

Anyhow, good luck. Hope I triggered some ideas for you to make a good decision. Its a tough one, and they should fully explain this, when someone moves on or offbase, that they are stuck, unless they want to pay the expenses to move at a later time. Ive met people that told me, they didnt know that after they already lived offbase and they wanted to move on. They blamed it on the housing office, but I turned it back on them, and said its your own fault. You should of asked more questions, before hand.

I speak from a different branch of service. But if the base "directs" a service member to move from off base to on base, then it is considered a funded move. If the service pays $1500 (or whatever) a month for off base housing and the base has an empty house on base...they have a choice to make. Leave the house empty, or direct someone into it. Even though you might not be "directed", perhaps you can inquire about how to wait (on base housing waiting list) in order to get a funded move. Doing so stops the Govt paying $1500 a month but pays for a local move...whatever the cost.

Just my 2 yennies.

I've checked with the moving company on base and it's 27.5 Yen per pound or $.33. A lot of my moving could be done with a truck/van from the NEX using the toll coupons.

My final concern is how much will my paycheck be affected by living on Negishi vs. Japanese economy. I know COLA is lower and no utilities you can save on. We're currently a 1 income household and finding it difficult to find a job for my wife either on the base (not a U.S. citizen) or in town because of the Japanese requirement.
Can anyone tell me what a E5 with 8 years service and 1 dependent earns on average in Negishi? That would help make our decision easier.

Thank You,
Chris