Cost of living... (1)

It has been said that cost of living in Malaysia is high, even though the amount of ringgit spent on some items is largely cheaper than other countries, in number.

Now, I would like to make comparison with Japan, but I feel that I should also have a point of reference to make the comparison easier to see (maybe not). Here is how I am going to compare:

I will use a type of income in Japan and compare it to the same type of income in Malaysia. To make things simpler for me, I chose the hourly paid income for a part-time worker. Those working at the supermarket as cashier, etc...

Now, if my knowledge is still up-to-date, supermarket cashier's hourly pay, in Malaysia, should be around RM2.50 - RM3.00 (like Super Komtar). While for Japan, supermarket cashier's hourly pay is around 700yen-900yen (like Itoyokado).
Therefore, let's fix it at the lower range, that is, for Malaysia, it will be RM2.50, and for Japan, it will be 700yen.

We have a mark to start comparing, and lets compare:

	Malaysia (RM2.50/hour)		Japan (700yen/hour)
Item	Price	Hour(s)	Price	Hour(s)
Cinema Movie	RM8.00	3.20	1800yen	2.57
Imported CD	RM40	16	1600yen	2.29
Bread(A Loaf)	RM1.50	0.6	200yen	0.29
Coca-Cola(Vending Machine)	RM1.20	0.48	150yen	0.22
Novel (English)	RM30.00	12	1500yen	2.15
Lunch Set (Western)	RM7.00	2.8	1000yen	1.43
Watch(Swatch)	RM125.00	50	7000yen	10
DVD (pirated vs original)	RM15.00	6	4000yen	5.72

*Hour(s): The amount of hours that is needed for a person to work in order to get that item.

For the moment, all the listed items seems to favor Japan more than to Malaysia. Ok, I have actually tried my best in making the comparison, since I compared Malaysia's pirated DVD with Japan's original DVD (but using average price).

From time to time, I will try to add more for comparison, and if anyone have any other idea to make comparison, feel free to suggest, although I might not implement it (depending on how difficult for me to get the information).

I am trying not to act biased, and if anyone who have stayed in Japan before that would like to give/share comments on my method of evaluation, feel free to do so too.

Note:
I wish to include transportation fees, too, but I have difficulty in getting the numbers. However, for transportation fees, like bus and taxi, I feel that Malaysia is cheaper than Japan, but I am not so sure of that.