Whoa. The Tsukinos are even richer than I thought.

[Bob Schroeck]

I just came across this article at Kotaku.com, which reports on a Japanese author (someone who goes by the pen name "Sow") who tried to estimate the values of several famous anime houses and tweeted his results.  (This was some time late last year; the article is dated November 2018.)  He points out that a standalone house with garden like the Tsukino home, located in Azabujuuban, would cost four million dollars in today's money.

Yow.

[robkelk]

Apparently, they aren't the only ones.

Tuxedo Unmasked: How Rich is Ami Mizuno?

Well, not only does her mother apparently collect diamonds as a hobby, but the condo mother and daughter Mizuno live in is what’s referred to as a okushon (億ション), a wordplay on mansion (マンション; manshon), from the Japanese word for a condominium.

You see, the Japanese word for 10,000 is man (万) which is a homophone for the first half of the aforementioned mansion. The next highest number counter in Japanese is oku (億), which means 100,000,000. So basically it’s a wordplay to suggest that it’s a super-ritzy condominium nearly no one could afford.

And so on.

[classicdrogn]

Is there canon on what her parents do? Her father being an architect at the "designs corporate headquarters buildings" level could probably cover for that without being likely to impact anything plotwise. Well, perhaps aside from the design of Crystal Tokyo much later on.

E: The Tsukinos, I mean, AMi's mother is supposed to be a doctor and/or hospital administrator IIRC. Of course, it could just be pervasive fanon, given how little direct exposure I've had to any version of SM this century.

[hazard]

Mr Tsukino is IIRC supposed to be a (newspaper) photographer.

[Bob Schroeck]

Yeah, he's a journalist of some stripe. And mom's a housewife. How they got a $4 million private home in the middle of one of Tokyo's ritzier districts is not an easy question to answer. An inheritance, maybe?

[robkelk]

And canonically Ami's mother is an internist, not a a high-paid specialist or an administrator. A combination of inheritances and 100-year mortgages is my guess for both the Tsukinos and the Mizunos.

And Makoto has her own place with no visible income or visible family at all.

Rei lives at a shrine - not a half-lot-sized shrine tucked away in a corner somewhere, but one of the larger hilltop shrines. This is the easiest one to explain: it's a cultural location that's funded by donations and/or taxpayers.


(Of course, Bellasario's Maxim and the MST3K Mantra apply to the original work... but I suspect Bob would prefer a coherent explanation of the finances in case they come up in the story.)

[Norgarth]

one thing that may make a difference, is that it sounds like the calculated values are for modern property values. what were they like back in the 80's (and how much inflation is involved?)

[Bob Schroeck]

According to the article, real estate is cheaper now than it was then -- although that was a global statement, and the several anime the author examined are not all from the same period.

That said, time to do a little Googling. Let's see...

• Dollar-to-yen converter (current)
  
• Historical Dollar/Yen exchange rate chart
  
• Japanese Inflation Calculator
  
• US dollar inflation calculator
  

Assuming that $4 million is today's money, converted with recent exchange rates, let's start by turning that back into Yen -- which gives us ¥439,618,296.31.

Plug that in the wayback calculator and set it for 1992, and we get ... ¥468,218,857.04. Which is, as claimed, higher than today.

The yen-to-dollar exchange rate for April 1, 1992 was 134.5-to-1, which gives us $3,481,181.09 in 1992 bucks.

(Just for funsies, $3,481,181.09 in 1992 bucks is $6,307,950.04 today, showing that the two economies aren't very closely linked.)

If the $4 million is in 1992 dollars, then the house is ¥538,000,000 in 1992 yen -- which would be, huh, ¥505,136,945.81 today. Again showing a drop in prices. But not a hefty one.

So. $4 million vs. $3.5 million, ¥538 million vs. ¥468 million. We're still talking multiple millions. Usagi's family is loaded, at least as far as real estate is concerned. Given their lifestyle as depicted in the anime, I'm betting it's the vast majority of their net worth, and they have the liquidity of an upper-middle-class/lower-upper-class family of the period.

(Just FYI, I used April 1992 for my baseline date and data, and the latest data available for the other end. In some calculators, that was December 2018, in others it was last month.)

[Bob Schroeck]

And Makoto has her own place with no visible income or visible family at all.

Based on some of the research I've done, I'm working on the assumption that she has a lot of money from compensation payments for the deaths of her parents, as well as payouts from whatever insurance they had. Given the historical context, the plane crash in which they died was almost certainly Japan Airlines Flight 123 or an analogue thereof. According to multiple sources I've checked (and don't take every detail in that Wikipedia article as gospel, because it's subject to edit-warring that keeps shifting the blame and changing the story), Boeing made compensatory payments to the families of the victims that have been described as "healthy" and "generous", and JAL itself paid "condolence money" without admitting liability; there were also lawsuits filed in the United States, the results of which I have yet to actually discover.

Given all that, and what her apartment looks like (large, comfortable), I'm pretty confident that she's quite well off.

She almost certainly has an absentee guardian; her lifestyle is unusual but not impossible under Japanese law.

but I suspect Bob would prefer a coherent explanation of the finances in case they come up in the story.

<irish cop>They moight, rabbit, they moight.</irish cop>

[Labster]

I'm not sure why you're assuming that either of these families own or rent on their own housing.  It could very well be a company benefit, as this is not at all unusual in Japan.

Remember, almost all of the value of a house in Tokyo is the land on which it sits.  The house itself is practically worthless, or likely even negative value, if it were to go in the "used housing" market.  If the land was bought cheaply by the company in the 1950s -- or 1910s -- well it makes sense to use it for your nearby employees with family.

It's also possible that the entire apartment building is owned by the hospital where Dr. Mizuno works.  It's possible that they were in a position to buy it in a market just after the bubble economy burst, which slots into 1993 nicely.

The company is your public life. Have an issue with your landlord? The company will handle it, in those cases where the company is not your landlord. (“So let me get this straight: we’re going to pay our employees, and then they’re going to immediately hand 25% of their salary over to an apartment? Doesn’t this suggest an obvious inefficiency? We could just buy a building and house dozens of employees there — lower transaction costs plus economies of scale.” Many Japanese companies have done this math already, and company dorms are quite common, particularly for young, single employees.)

That's part of a whole essay on Doing Business in Japan.  There's a lot of cultural things that are relevant to how it could be paid for, like:

I heard a great line about this once, and unfortunately I cannot remember the source: “Most people want to become wealthy so they can consume social status. Japanese employers believe this is inefficient, and simply award social status directly.” The best employees aren’t compensated with large option grants or eye popping bonuses — they’re simply anointed as “princes”, given their pick of projects to work on, receive plum assignments, and get their status acknowledged (in ways great and small) by the other employees.

$30k is a reasonable wage for an engineer in Japan virtually anywhere but Tokyo. In Tokyo, average mid-career wages in engineering are roughly $50k (5 million yen a year). (Pay is generally higher in the financial industry and in foreign-owned corporations, which are generally in the financial industry.)

But there's also hilarious story about how he got his first line of credit.  I'd recommend that whole article if you want background on ordinary life in Japan.

[hazard]

If the Tsukino house is indeed company owned that offers interesting implications about just how good a journalist Mr Tsukino is. Or how badly they need him close by central Tokyo.


Of course, this does mean that all the Senshi have rather wealthy backgrounds by most standards, even if the impression is that all the inners at least are more solid middle class at best in lifestyle. It's the Outers that come with the obvious wealth trappings.

[classicdrogn]

Well, Puu at least has the advantage of compound interest since the (re)invention of economic systems more complex than "everything in a given territory gets delivered to the palace and redistributed at the grand poobah's pleasure." They also all share a house, if fanon hasn't lied to me yet again.

How about Dr. Tomoe? He originally punched into Pharoh 90's space with some kind of high-energy physics experiment, wasn't it? That's not the kind of thing typically done by one dude in his basement, or in residential areas in general...

[itsune9tl]

How about Dr. Tomoe? He originally punched into Pharoh 90's space with some kind of high-energy physics experiment, wasn't it? That's not the kind of thing typically done by one dude in his basement, or in residential areas in general...

in a lot of anime, and a bit of Western text fiction, it happens more often than you think.

I've got my eyes on you professor!

Which one?

The one with the Radio Telescope on his roof in stead of the standard Dish antenna.

[Bob Schroeck]

You never know, he might have retrofitted a first-generation satellite dish antenna without any external cues.

[ECSNorway]

Bit late to the party here, but I seem to recall reading that he owned Mugen Gakuen outright, and it was a fairly ritzy private school.

[Labster]

The Tomoes are definitely rich with that house and garden.  Hotaru's room is bigger than most Japanese apartments (if not as well lit).  Not to mention all of the extra tatami of space in the basement laboratory, and in the sub-basement with its very spacious, accursed spacetime distortion.  Need to get Holmes on Homes to fix up that last part.

But still, probably not as rich as Haruka's parents, who let her have a freaking helicopter.

Of course if you really think about it, Ami is the wealthiest one in Sailor Moon, because the Mercury Computer is at least as advanced as today's tech -- and the sensors may be even more advanced (assuming it's not 100% lunar-based remote sensing on instruments built ~10kya which is even crazier really).  I'd think that in the 90s, future tech like that should be worth at least a few billion.  The Grail and the Ginzuishou might be priceless, but they're not a business model.

[Shepherd]

It looks like everyone has been covered except for Neptune, Uranus, Venus, and Tuxedo Mask.

Neptune is a violinist and noted to be very fashionable. Uranus is a race car driver who seems to own a car and motorcycle in Tokyo, if the pics on the Sailor Moon wiki site aren't misleading. They definitely appear to be rich.

Minako's parents seem to be a salaryman and housewife in the manga, but the anime had her living in London, so her family can afford international relocation. Was her being an idol singer canon or fanon? Either way, she seems to be at least upper middle class.

Tuxedo Mask could afford to go to Harvard in America. Definitely well to do.

I think the lesson to be learned here is that Usagi's mother added a little something extra into the reincarnation spell so that everyone would be well off in their new lives.

[robkelk]

Minako's parents seem to be a salaryman and housewife in the manga, but the anime had her living in London, so her family can afford international relocation. Was her being an idol singer canon or fanon? Either way, she seems to be at least upper middle class.

Minako auditioned in one episode of Sailor Moon S ... and lost to Mimete (who then wasn't hired either, apparently because of executive meddling).

Actually being an idol appears to be fanon.

[Star Ranger4]

I think the lesson to be learned here is that Usagi's mother added a little something extra into the reincarnation spell so that everyone would be well off in their new lives.

Well, yes; my take on it is is MAGIC.  Intent comes into it in my worldview; when Serenity does her thing, its part of her intent, maybe not consciously, that they wind up in a life equivalent to what they had on the moon, so there we go.

[hazard]

It looks like everyone has been covered except for Neptune, Uranus, Venus, and Tuxedo Mask.

Neptune is a violinist and noted to be very fashionable. Uranus is a race car driver who seems to own a car and motorcycle in Tokyo, if the pics on the Sailor Moon wiki site aren't misleading. They definitely appear to be rich.

Minako's parents seem to be a salaryman and housewife in the manga, but the anime had her living in London, so her family can afford international relocation. Was her being an idol singer canon or fanon? Either way, she seems to be at least upper middle class.

Tuxedo Mask could afford to go to Harvard in America. Definitely well to do.

I think the lesson to be learned here is that Usagi's mother added a little something extra into the reincarnation spell so that everyone would be well off in their new lives.

Regarding Minato, it's apparently not uncommon for Japanese companies to support or outright subsidize the living costs of useful employees, up to and including arranging a residence for them. I wouldn't be surprised if Minako's father was offered the job in London on the company's dime for a reason the company found useful.

Minako being an idol is canon in the Sailor Moon live action series, where she's dying of cancer IIRC.

And frankly, I've a feeling that a lot of anime protagonists are oddly well to do, if only because that's more convenient to the stories involved.

[Bob Schroeck]

Minako being an idol is canon in the Sailor Moon live action series, where she's dying of cancer IIRC.

You are correct on both counts. Further, Minako was apparently responsible for her own songwriting, orchestration and marketing, given what we were shown in PGSM.

[hazard]

PGSM Sailor Venus is a music industry beast in that case.

I mean, pretty, good singing voice, good dancer (all of which are needed to become an idol), and then making the songwriting, orchestration and marketing decisions as well? Where does she find the hours in the day?

Leaving the whole 'dying of cancer' thing aside, she'd either fizzle out early from a burn out, never progress past local to national niche fame, or become a world famous entertainer who'd command the attention of the world.

[Bob Schroeck]

And Makoto has her own place with no visible income or visible family at all.

Based on some of the research I've done, I'm working on the assumption that she has a lot of money from compensation payments for the deaths of her parents, as well as payouts from whatever insurance they had.  Given the historical context, the plane crash in which they died was almost certainly Japan Airlines Flight 123 or an analogue thereof.  According to multiple sources I've checked (and don't take every detail in that Wikipedia article as gospel, because it's subject to edit-warring that keeps shifting the blame and changing the story), Boeing made compensatory payments to the families of the victims that have been described as "healthy" and "generous", and JAL itself paid "condolence money" without admitting liability; there were also lawsuits filed in the United States, the results of which I have yet to actually discover. 

Given all that, and what her apartment looks like (large, comfortable), I'm pretty confident that she's quite well off.

She almost certainly has an absentee guardian; her lifestyle is unusual but not impossible under Japanese law.

Oh, and chapter three shows some of the solution I came up with to these questions.

[robkelk]

Re-reading the thread, and this popped out at me:

If the Tsukino house is indeed company owned that offers interesting implications about just how good a journalist Mr Tsukino is. Or how badly they need him close by central Tokyo.

Hmmmmm...


"Teishi, it's time we went public."

"Everybody knows about us already, sensei."

"We're making it official, with an interview with a member of the press. He said he's bringing a photographer along."

Usagi grinned. "Not that that'll do any good."

"Not with your magic blurring your faces. But Jitsuha-san insisted."

Usagi stopped grinning. "Jitsuha Yoshi?"

I raised an eyebrow. "How did you know?"

"The same way I know the name of the photographer he's bringing along: Tsukino Kenji."

"Oh." I thought for a moment. "Well, I guess we're going to find out just how observant your father really is."


Or maybe not.

[Bob Schroeck]

Hah! I have Plans for Yoshi. But sadly, current plot doesn't let Kenji be involved with all of then. Although I could certainly add him to the events subsequent to this scene. Which would be seriously fun. Especially if he recognizes Luna. (Assuming she doesn't pass on the press event.)