Melbourne rated world's most liveable city; Tokyo ranked 15th

Huh? I thought Tokyo was rated worlds most livable city just last month in a magazine (owned by a Japanese company)?

Obviously they are not taking into account things like the weather, cost of living such as housing and traffic fines because if they were Melbourne wouldnt make the top 100.

Tokyo, a nice place to visit, but I wouldnt want to live there, with 15 million neighbors

I am surprised Melbourne beat Vancouver again. If given a choice to live anywhere on this planet I would choose Vancouver without a second thought.

It was MONOCLE, a British magazine on global affairs, business, culture and design that rank Tokyo as the most liveable city.

I echo what Steve said, the actual cost of living, is absolutely absurd, from a daily capuccino right through to rent , mortgage, petrol and day care....

"I would choose Vancouver without a second thought."

It's the world's least affordable place, according to many surveys. That means you'd live in relative poverty, unless you were independently wealthy. (which doesn't say much about the state of the local economy).

You'd also need to be a fan of perpetually overcast days and cold rain, which falls nearly daily for 9 months of every year.

Melbourne is probably the best city in the world if you love sports of all kinds, and the Melbourne Cricket G round is one of the worlds truly great stadiums. However, like all Aussie capital cities, everything is obscenely overpriced. Japanese friends who visit are always stunned by the prices!

Certainly more realistic than the Sankei partly-owned magazine that put Tokyo at #1

Melbourne's crap, Sydney is the best

Canada and Australia accounting for seven of the top ten cities.

To the people on here complaining about the cost of living in Melbourne - a little bit of perspective wouldn't do you any harm. I'm from an area in Sydney where $1m wouldn't even buy you a house. Why's that? Because you get what you pay for. You want the unmatched quality of life that Australia gives you (especially Sydney!), then you pay for it. 80% of Australia's population lives within 30mins of the sea!

I can't believe Tokyo was even on the list - it's a nightmare of a place to live. Even the more wealthier types don't really 'live', if you catch my drift. The quality of life really does suck, regardless of your salary bracket!

I love Tokyo, I can understand why its on the list. Good transportation network, excellent food, safe, lots of nightlife. Of course there are other reasons why it's not number one, but it's definitely a livable city.

Vancouver is also excellent, I thoroughly enjoyed my visits there. Very beautiful, good food, nice temperature.

I'd been living 5 years in Tokyo and have been living in Melbourne for over a year now. I love the life here outside of work. Even at work, people are friendlier, more social than the situation in Tokyo (across multiple jobs). As someone pointed out, this is also a great city for sports, both as a viewer and as an active participant. Access to good beaches, good drives while having good weather kind of rounds it up for me.

That said, I do miss the nightlife, the izakayas and the cheap food that was available in Tokyo along with easy access to ski resorts and onsens. I feel I've lived in 2 of the world's best cities and would say anyone living in either of these should consider themselves lucky

The good news is that my English student, a software engineer applied for a working visa for Australia. He dreamed of Brisbane and going to Gold Coast to surf. Or Gold Coast and commuting to Brisbane. He got his visa and moved the whole family. He was forced to accept Melbourne.. I just hope he chooses a company with branches in Brisbane. Sydney is an overpriced pretty harbour. Dont bother with it. Adelaide is a beautiful city.

Ha-ha . . #15. That's a big drop from #1 . . . .@NathalieB, yeah I remember that story.

Melbourne? Never seen it. But having been to a couple other big cities in Australia, this result doesn't surprise me. Australia & aussies are a pretty cool.

In my opinion on the 12 days each year when the sun shines Vancouver is the most beautiful city in the world. It's a city known for its unique dialect which includes 56 words for rain. Though it's no tropical paradise, it's still one of the most livable cities I know of with so many things on offer, including some of the best restaurants found anywhere.

Livable if you have money. It's the 6th most expensive city in the world.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbourne-the-worlds-sixth-most-expensive-city-20150303-13uilq.html

Tokyo, more than many cities IMHO, is a better-than-average place to live if you're wealthy and a worse-than-average place to live if you're not.

take these ranking with a grain of salt. they are only meant to sell magazines or newspapers. and with australia taking up a majority of the top ten rankings, i find the metrics quite questionable.

The population, social pressures and cement in Tokyo makes it a city that drains energy in every sense, so if you have the money to get away to more natural settings often enough to reinvigorate or to enjoy top-quality food, entertainment and activities to quickly rejuvenate you can survive. Otherwise... you need only look at the depressed looks of people riding the trains.

A truly livable city needs to be scored not only on stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education and infrastructure, but also some social indicators, such as the suicide rate, obesity, inclusiveness, etc., which indicates how fair and liveable it is for all inhabitants and not just those with enough money. Also, cities which gentrify and force out or ghettoize the lower classes should not be ranked as liveable. Cities must be diverse and open to be truly great.

Melbourne would have to be the worst city in Australia to live, full stop. Sapporo would be my pick for city living

The editor of Monocle magazine is a well-known Japanophile, who parachutes into here a couple of times a year to the expat/ corporate/ diplomatic areas, write glowing reports of life here, and speaks at financial meetings. I'm sure if he had to work and live outside of those areas, without drivers and interpreters, he'd have a different view of the place.

Wanderlust-I have to agree

These rankings depend on how much money one has and what the work situation is.

I'm with warispeace

Living in "people stacks" because there's no space for a proper home. Smashed into trains during your commute next to armpit man and halitosis girl in the "light air conditioning" car because you didn't notice in time. Cost of living means having only one child and living paycheck to paycheck. Cultural offerings? Anyone been to an art exhibit or ANYTHING that is even modestly popular in Tokyo? You have to fight an equivalent number of people to the population of Melbourne just to do something normal like visit a Costco.

Having lived in Vancouver, Manila, Sydney, and Tokyo, while having spent a lot of time in several other cities including Melbourne, I can honestly say that no place that I've been to for extended periods of time or lived in beats Tokyo. Sure, Melbourne's nice, but Vancouver is nicer, and both are easily better than Sydney. But none of them can even come close to Tokyo.

It would be interesting to know how the 140 cities were chosen in the first place. How useful can the results be if Amagasaki and Mansfield are excluded?

Here's a cool link I found in Washington Post about top 15 most liveable cities. Nice photos too.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/19/here-are-the-most-livable-cities-of-2015-australia-canada-dominate/?hpid=z8

Some nice pics in there, though they could have found something better for Melbourne and Vancouver.

NathalieBAUG. 20, 2015 - 06:54AM JST Huh? I thought Tokyo was rated worlds most livable city just last month in a magazine (owned by a Japanese company)?

Creme Brule sold a minority stake in Monocle to Japanese investors in 2014, but he's had Tokyo in his top five for years and Monocle has a shop in Daikanyama, if I remember correctly. And as I say every year when their ridiculous ratings come out, it's easy to rank Tokyo as one of the most liveable cities in the world when your only experiences there are short term stays in the best hotels, shopping, getting around in private cars and taxis, and fine dining. Kind of doubt he's had to endure tsuyu or the seemingly getting longer every year typhoon season.

@Jeff. Yup, 1st time I saw Tokyo ('89) it was booming off the chain. Both ¥ and $ dollar strong due to that float system. Japan was sooo rich bck' then.

And as I say every year when their ridiculous ratings come out, it's easy to rank Tokyo as one of the most liveable cities in the world when your only experiences there are short term stays

@Jeff. Yup again. It's called the "honeymoon stage". After 4-5 months homesickness sets in. Then the language barrier kicks in.

But the ones who are able to adapt, it can be worth it. If you've worked in your country's embassy here, having access to US Bases etc. . . It's really not too bad of a place to be living in. Either now or bck n' bubble yrs.

Apparently some people commenting here and disagreeing with the ranking are more educated and skilled than the guys at EIU ... That's why you fellows are here and they are there!

MikeHAUG. 21, 2015 - 04:55AM JST Apparently some people commenting here and disagreeing with the ranking are more educated and skilled than the guys at EIU ... That's why you fellows are here and they are there!

It has nothing to do with education and skills (I was offered an internship at EIU in grad schools - it's primarily a data collection and aggregation service). These rankings are subjective because they all use different "metrics" to determine "liveability." As someone who has lived in both Tokyo and NYC, the latter is every bit as "livable" as the former but neither hold a candle to my hometown, Seattle, or Vancouver.

Although I was born in Osaka, I grew up in #4 on the list Toronto until I was 13. Pretty awesome memories of that great city.

Jeff Huffman AUG. 21, 2015 - 05:35AM JST As someone who has lived in both Tokyo and NYC, the latter is every bit as "livable" as the former but neither hold a candle to my hometown, Seattle, or Vancouver.

Suburb of Tokyo or Sapporo is a nice place to live. Both Seattle and Vancouver are overrated, and has lousy weather for people that enjoy outdoors. Over 260 days are overcast or drizzly. Vancouver gets close to 60 inch of rain per year. If you Pacific Northwest, places around Kelowna B.C. or Spokane, Washington, the weather is similar to California and quality of life is much better.

Sure, its a bit dicey really determining this kind of thing, but

Melbourne is a kick ass city.

I think of it this way: could I live there the whole of my life and, well, live there, and live there well? I grew up in a beach town in California. Really no better place to grow up. But, not the best place to be in your early adulthood. Not bad, but not like San Francisco, New York or all the other great cities on this rock.

And then you start a family. And then you grow old.

Places like Melbourne, Kobe, Freiburg, Rosario, Antigua, Vancouver, and so on have it all. At every stage of life, one can live, and live well.

The survey scores cities on five broad categories: stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education and infrastructure.

How on earth, Melbourne has the excellent infrastructure? From Airport to downtown, there were no railway or Ferry link like HK and Singapore. The nearest railway station from Airport is Southern Cross. Have to catch the bus from Airport and needed to wait for sometimes for filling the Bus. Public transport fares are not cheap except for pensioners Trains Trams and Buses are pretty slow and inefficient. In Tokyo, commuters will be crowded like Sardine. At least trains are reliable.

For the education, Aussie kids are many years behind in literacy, Maths and Science comparing with Asian counter parts. From year 1 to year 10 almost every students passed without the stress of failing exams. Overall Aussie education system is more comfortable for kids. However not everything is wine and rose.

Both Sydney and Melbourne, new generations Aussie are struggling to own their houses due to sky rocketing price of property market. Melbourne is good for cashed up wealthy Asian Immigrants. For average wage earners, they will be struggled to make the ends meet. There will be losers in Melbourne although some are doing very well.

"disagreeing with the ranking are more educated and skilled than the guys at EIU"

You're kidding, right? Among many other things, the Economist supported George W. Bush's election and the Iraq invasion, endorsements it both later admitted were wrong.

It was wrong then...and it's wrong now.

Melbourne beat Vancouver again Melbourne is a very expensive city to live in , Summer can be very hot, Vanouver winters are like living in a freezer. so it all depends which type of weather you prefer.

Lived in Melbourne most of my life, not a bad place to live. But the winters are dreadful, cold and windy so I moved somewhere warmer. Expensive to buy a house there.

Monocle magazine was bought by Nikkei holdings a while back which might explain why they would come to the eyebrow-raising conclusion that Tokyo was the best place in the world to live.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/07/05/issues/media-redraw-battleines-bid-global-reach/#.VdcGrXhUTeQ

"Tokyo was ranked at 15, Paris at 29, London at 53 and New York at 55."

This is a joke, right?

I'm always surprised to see Tokyo, and only Tokyo, ranked highly among Japanese cities -- many other Japanese cities are much more livable than Tokyo, such as Kyoto, Sapporo, and Osaka: lower real estate prices, lower food prices, salaries not much worse, much easier-to-understand street system, people a little friendlier, more history less stressful atmosphere. I'd live in any of those places if the employment prospects were there.

The Japanese government-sponsored promotional groups also seem content to let Tokyo be Japan's only representative in these kinds of surveys and they never try to urge the pollsters to consider the rest of Japan.

Also very happy to see Kathmandu rise in the rankings after that terrible earthquake they had. I wonder what Dubai did to improve so much.

@Reckless, Vancouver doesn't have legalized pot. Nowhere in Canada does. It also has an average housing price of over $2 million for the city proper (i.e. not Surrey, Richmond, etc.) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/housing/blistering-bc-housing-prices-put-pressure-on-politicians/article24836765/

sfjp330AUG. 21, 2015 - 10:31AM JST Suburb of Tokyo or Sapporo is a nice place to live.

True for some of Tokyo's outer ring (there really are no such thing as suburbs in Japan). Most are horrible if you remember that Chiba and Saitama are pretty much the equivalent of what are suburbs/bedroom communities in Japan.

Sapporo is very nice, though a bit bereft of culture, not unlike most of the middle-sized cities in the U.S. It has a great climate without tsuyu or the horror that is the Japanese summer for most of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu.

Both Seattle and Vancouver are overrated, and has lousy weather for people that enjoy outdoors.

My guess is that you've never been to either city. The weather is grey from November to March, but that hardly precludes outdoor activities. More boats per capita are owned in Western Washington than anywhere else in the U.S. Seattle fronts Puget Sound and is bracketed by Lake Union just north of downtown and Lake Washington along the length of its city limits to the east. Seattle is in the top 5 in the U.S. in bicycle commuting and recreational riding (the Cascade Bicycle Club has some 16,000 members). REI pretty much invented modern outdoor recreation. You can be night skiing after work in about an hour. There are more youth and adult soccer players in greater Seattle than anywhere else in the U.S. Shall I continue? Much of this is true if not more so for Vancouver, easily the most beautiful city in NA, though Seattle's not too far behind.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4124/5202980757_10e5e165fc_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8096/8401477494_8f2630fe5e_b.jpg

Vancouver gets close to 60 inch of rain per year.

At 55", Tokyo is about the same. The important difference is that most of Tokyo's rain falls in the summer months with rain falling almost daily during tsuyu. In the PNW, almost all of the rain falls in the late fall through early spring. Did I mention that we don't have typhoons nor much humidity in the summer?

If you Pacific Northwest, places around Kelowna B.C.

Kelowna's a nice town, which you wouldn't compare to the major cities of the world. Great skiing and dry sunny weather. Zero culture.

or Spokane, Washington, the weather is similar to California and quality of life is much better.

I was born in Spokane. It is pretty dreadful and grey most of the late fall through spring like Seattle with rain and snow, not at all similar to the California of your imagination. Ringed with wildfires right now, something that you always have a better than even chance for every summer. Great recreation, but next to no culture, dreadful public transportation, very parochial and politically conservative. Economic peaks come later and downturns last longer.

JeffLeeAUG. 21, 2015 - 11:45AM JST You're kidding, right? Among many other things, the Economist supported George W. Bush's election and the Iraq invasion, endorsements it both later admitted were wrong.

Google is your friend.

The Economist Intelligence Unit is owned by the Economist magazine, but it has nothing to do with editorial content. It is a data collection and aggregation division that produces country profiles (GDP, demographics, etc.) and the like. This city ranking is an example of this.

http://www.eiu.com/home.aspx

Lack of sufficient air conditioning alone keeps Tokyo out of the top 20 imo. Live able means comfort. I love Tokyo. Come for business and to visit family regularly, but it is definitely not comfortable!

Jeff Huffman AUG. 22, 2015 - 02:02AM JST My guess is that you've never been to either city. The weather is grey from November to March, but that hardly precludes outdoor activities.

I visit there often. Vancouver is a beautiful and interesting city, but the Vancouver advertised by the tourism industry, is not the whole picture. Vancouver is the most expensive city and has one of the highest traffic congestion. If I had to choose between Vancouver to Toronto, I would pick Toronto. Toronto has much more culture by far. Vancouver has the highest population of drug addicts, and homeless people in Canada. Once you get outside of downtown, Vancouver is the wonderful destination, I've had a wonderful time, and like coming back to. Many times I've taken seaplane from Terminal C at YVR and fly to Gabriola Island or to Nanaimo and BC ferry from Tsawwassen or Vancouver to Duke Point.

Seattle has a similar problem as Vancouver. It is the most expensive city for buying a house or renting in PNW and has the highest traffic congestion in I-5, I-405 and many major roads. Sure the culture is there, but it's expensive. You really have to have a good job to make ends meet. Would you live in Tacoma with all the problems? I do like Gig Harbor which is nice. The reason I compare with quality of life in places like Kelowna or Spokane is that real estate is about half or less of the cost of these two cities. I visit Kelowna area often. Other than extreme weather between November to March ( think it only snowed few times last year), the rain total is about 1/4 of Vancouver and Seattle. Eastern B.C. and Washington is a great place for a family. Alot of outdoor activities to do with less crime and congestion. If you like big expensive city, San Francisco is a winner.

dcog9065 I ran from Sydney to Melbourne three times and I prefer Melbourne. Bell birds calling on the banks of the Yarra.....