Kyoto Guide for Digital Nomads

Weather in Kyoto by month

The warmest month is August, at about 94°F (34°C) in the afternoon, and the coolest is January, at about 49°F (9°C).

The most rain falls in July.

From NOAA's monthly station summaries for Kyoto, Ja (1.9 km away), averaged over 2011 to 2025.

Internet in Kyoto

In M-Lab's open speed tests within 25 km of Kyoto, half came in above 113 Mbps download and 91 Mbps upload, and the fastest quarter of lines above 332 Mbps.

That's 661,024 download tests from September 2025 to September 2026.

The typical figure counts every line, cheap and mobile ones too; a fiber line in a good apartment or coworking space is closer to the fastest quarter.

Test yours when you get there with my internet speed test.

Cost of living in Kyoto

One person spends about $2,900 a month in Kyoto, with a furnished place to stay:

The rent is estimated from Japan's housing prices, as Inside Airbnb doesn't cover Kyoto.

The rest is what a one-person US household spends (the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2024 survey), at Japan's prices for each (the World Bank's 2021 price comparison).

Coworking, insurance and flights come on top.

Air quality in Kyoto

The air in Kyoto carries about 9 µg/m³ of fine particles (PM2.5) over a year, 1.9 times the WHO's guideline of 5 µg/m³.

The cleanest month is February, at about 7 µg/m³, and the haziest is July.

From the 3 government monitors nearest Kyoto, all within 2 km, through OpenAQ's open air quality data, each month's average since 2023: 京都市上京区烏丸通り上立売上ル相国寺門前町６４７の２ (Ministry of the Environment Air Pollutant Wide Area Monitoring System, 政府標準利用規約（第2.0版） (Government Standard Terms of Use v2.0), 1.3 km); 京都市中京区西ノ京中保町１の４ (Ministry of the Environment Air Pollutant Wide Area Monitoring System, 政府標準利用規約（第2.0版） (Government Standard Terms of Use v2.0), 1.8 km); 京都市中京区寺町通り御池上ル上本能寺前町４８８ (Ministry of the Environment Air Pollutant Wide Area Monitoring System, 政府標準利用規約（第2.0版） (Government Standard Terms of Use v2.0), 2 km).

Is Kyoto safe?

The US State Department rates Japan Level 1 ("Exercise normal precautions", updated 2025-05-15), the same level it gives Austria, Portugal, Australia and Canada.

Level 1 is normal travel.

Some advisories raise the level for parts of a country, so read the full advisory before you book.

Work and stay in Kyoto

Where to work and live with other remote workers, from each finder:

See them all on a map, with hours, photos and directions, in the coworking space finder and free Wi-Fi spots.

Visas, taxes and residency in Japan

Before you plan a long stay, check what your passport allows and what staying does to your taxes:

• Can you stay? – see where your passport goes without a visa on the visa-free countries map, and whether Japan has a visa for remote workers in the digital nomad visa finder
• Tax – compare Japan's income tax with other countries in tax rates by country
• Tax breaks for new residents – Japan has a regime for people who move there; see it in tax breaks for new residents
• Foreign income – Japan taxes its tax residents on their income from anywhere; see the rule and its exceptions on the territorial tax map

Each tool reads the official rules, so the answer is for your own passport and income.

Money in Kyoto

A card with no foreign fee and an account that holds several currencies make a stay much cheaper:

• Accounts – the best bank accounts for digital nomads, by where you live
• Cards – what a card costs you abroad in the card fees abroad calculator
• Sending money – the cheapest way to move money there in the money transfer comparison

The finders show only accounts and cards you can open from where you live.

Time zone

Kyoto runs on Tokyo time (Asia/Tokyo).

See how many working hours you'd share with your clients or team in the time zone overlap calculator.