How much does it cost to own a house in Tokyo?

Question:

I want a place in Tokyo that I want to call my own. I have 500,000 dollars / 39,200,000 yen. Is that enough? What's the best I can get?

Answer:

Not in Tokyo itself. 39M yen is just about the bottom starting point for a new house, even outside a big city.

The largest part of the cost is often the land. I live outside Osaka, maybe a 30 minute train ride out. Around my house land runs about $6M/acre. Of course you never buy that much, just enough to put a house on, have a parking space for your car and about 1 m of space between your house and the property line on the other three sides. My house is so close to my neighbor's that the rain gutters are within about 6 inches of each other. When I bought my house about 15 years ago, the house was about $225K and the land another $225K.

If I am not mistaken, the most expensive piece of real estate in the world is located in the Ginza area in Tokyo.