I've lived most of my life in Norway, and also spent a year living in Japan (and visited London, Berlin as well as the east and west coast of the US, and Toronto).
Cost of living in Norway is high, but we also are among the people that spend the least amount of our pay (percentage wise) on food. Effective minimum wage (there is no minimum wage) is around 200k NOK a year, the prime minister makes approximately 800k -- and a reasonable pay is 400k NOK/year (65k USD) -- this is also close to the median wage[1].
All our best universities and colleges are public (and free) -- and there's a government sponsored student loan/stipend (for living expenses) that while too low (and worse than eg: Denmark) -- are good enough that it is possible to live on it (almost no-one does, as you can't both live on it and go out drinking two days a week...).
When I went to Japan in 1997 (just before the crash) -- cost of living in Japan "felt" similar to in Norway. Better quality food (or cheaper depending on your point of view) -- more expensive housing and utilities. As I was in high-school at the time I don't know how salaries relate, AFAIK if you get a "real" job in Japan you will make a decent living, but many young people are stuck in part-time jobs.
Also worth mentioning is the heavy taxation on cars, the recent change in VAT for food (half of the regular 25%) -- and that we still don't pay VAT on books.
I'm not sure if this comment really adds much, but I (along with a few other responders, I suspect) was really thrown by the insinuation that education is not only not free in Norway, but expensive.
My anecdotal experience 3 years ago living in Japan (near Tokyo, for 2 months doing an internship) was that the prices on average were similar to what I experienced back home in California. Occasionally some things were surprisingly more expensive, and others were surprisingly cheap. The 100yen (~$1) stores were better stocked than in the US and I could get most things I needed from them. They also were located in malls and were very nice to shop in. Things like sushi that I expected to be cheaper were about the same price as back in the US (which was seriously disappointing!), and cheaper food was seriously cheap and relatively healthy. I lost like 20 lbs eating all those beef bowls and noodles. Trains were not super cheap, but not overly expensive. It's way way waaaayyyy cheaper than Europe and unlike in Europe they privately owned, aren't subsidized and make a profit which was a relief to hear (I can't think of another country that has an unsubsidized public transportation system) I think the bus from Tokyo to Kyoto was about 40 bucks (my memory is a bit hazy). . Owning a car and driving places from what I understood is extremely expensive. I think most of my coworkers didn't own cars. A relatively short drive on the freeway can easily set you back $50 (tolls roads everywhere). I didn't get any hard figures for wages, but I think generally people didn't make a killing, but people lived comfortably and it seemed they could support a family on one wage. They did however work 12 hours a day... so I don't think they got to enjoy whatever income they made.
> My anecdotal experience 3 years ago living in Japan
I should note that I was back in Japan in 2002 -- and prices seemed to have almost stood still -- I'm not surprised if Japan today is much cheaper than Norway.
Cost of living in Norway is high, but we also are among the people that spend the least amount of our pay (percentage wise) on food. Effective minimum wage (there is no minimum wage) is around 200k NOK a year, the prime minister makes approximately 800k -- and a reasonable pay is 400k NOK/year (65k USD) -- this is also close to the median wage[1].
All our best universities and colleges are public (and free) -- and there's a government sponsored student loan/stipend (for living expenses) that while too low (and worse than eg: Denmark) -- are good enough that it is possible to live on it (almost no-one does, as you can't both live on it and go out drinking two days a week...).
When I went to Japan in 1997 (just before the crash) -- cost of living in Japan "felt" similar to in Norway. Better quality food (or cheaper depending on your point of view) -- more expensive housing and utilities. As I was in high-school at the time I don't know how salaries relate, AFAIK if you get a "real" job in Japan you will make a decent living, but many young people are stuck in part-time jobs.
Also worth mentioning is the heavy taxation on cars, the recent change in VAT for food (half of the regular 25%) -- and that we still don't pay VAT on books.
I'm not sure if this comment really adds much, but I (along with a few other responders, I suspect) was really thrown by the insinuation that education is not only not free in Norway, but expensive.
[1] http://www.ssb.no/a/aarbok/tab/tab-190.html (note these numbers are after tax, my numbers (which are from memory-ish, are before tax)