Generally, it would be people coming from anywhere with a higher median multiple than Tokyo. (That is, ratio of median housing price to median household income). For example Vancouver, with a median multiple of 11.9 (in 2019) will have a lot of people who think Tokyo's ~4.7 seems very affordable by comparison, even though 4.7 is not considered affordable in absolute terms.
That's not really relevant - what's relevant is how much the migrants are making in Tokyo. Presumably they are making much more than the average Tokyo citizen which is why it's perceived as affordable, and is my point.
It seems very relevant to me! The median multiple is most directly relevant to people earning the median salary and buying the median house. And by this metric Tokyo blows Vancouver out of the park.
Even if they're working a job making less than the median Tokyo salary, they'll likely still rate Tokyo's housing affordability as much better than when they were working that job in Vancouver, earning below-median Vancouver salary.
The median multiple does not take into account the quality of housing. So, again, irrelevant. Housing in Vancouver is much larger than housing in Tokyo. Furthermore it's much easier to migrate to Vancouver permanently compared to Tokyo. Any affordability as a result of gatekeeping is an illusion.
What metric do you prefer? Or, what metric should a Vancouverite use to judge whether they'd struggle less to afford housing in Tokyo, given an opportunity to move there?
And, reciprocally, what would you tell a Tokyoite who is considering a move to Vancouver? The ones I met all were shocked by the cost of rent, and really struggled, especially the ones working service jobs -- like hotel staff or restaurant server -- who could get by much more comfortably in Tokyo with those jobs. They could only afford crowded shared rooms in Vancouver, and ate into their savings to do so. But even the tech workers from Japan found Vancouver less appealing.
