Well, Tokyo living is real high end. It really is costly to live in that city
So is living in downtown Toronto, downtown Moscow, downtown New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver and any number of other cities. What people fail to realize (especially those who have never been here in the first place and rely on CNN as their main source of news) is that living in Tokyo is no different from living in any other city.
Yes, it can be expensive if you have an expensive lifestyle and demand the highest quality food, wine, brandy, clothing, accessories, etc etc etc.
HOWEVER and I do stress the 'however' part, you will be (most likely) making more money here than you would back home unless you are a ticketed welder or tradesperson (or heck, even a CEO). You also need to realize that living here is a LOT different from visiting. Visiting is ten times more costly because you don't know where to go for good prices, you don't know where to go to do your shopping and you most likely don't even know about Yokohama's COSTCO with free next-day delivery. If you're smart, it can be very very cheap. My old apartment was 49,000 yen per month for a 2LDK. Not a bad price especially considering it was in a 'rich city' (Tama Plaza).
Living here is not that expensive because YOU will most likely NOT be living in downtown Tokyo, in the party district of Shibuya or the up-class area on the outskirts of Minatomirai. Don't fall for the hype. It CAN be more expensive if you ONLY look at the prices and not the fact that you make more money. It's cheaper for me to live in Yokohama than it is to live in smallish city in Canada. I'll put it that way.