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What is considered good salary in Japan

ShikkokuNoSenshi

ShikkokuNoSenshi

hourou no boukensha
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Greetings TAGers. I am living in Japan for 2 years as for 10 days ago and what always interested me is what considered good salary here. I asked a bunch of people whom I can think as good acquaintance of mine and treat theirs answers as true. And what confused me they have told very different numbers. It even came to point where 2 persons with almost same position, same education and similar time in company had difference in paychecks for 2 times. So as for those answers I couldn't get normal distribution graph. So it would be really cool to hear opinions of TAGers since people here usually spent more money on entertainment then average japanese salaryman.

By now median I was able to calculate is 5 000 000 yen per year. I.e. above that value salary is considered good here. Is my impression correct? Would be really cool to hear some values and maybe some arguments. Cheers.
 
The answers about salary will probably vary as much as the opinions which escorts are good.

I don't think that is a particularly good salary, at least not in Tokyo. Nurses pull that much and in every country I know nurses are not considered to be paid well.

Anything over a million per month is decent though I know guys for whom that is just their p4p budget.
 
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MikeH said:
The answers about salary will probably vary as much as the opinions which escorts are good.

I don't think that is a particularly good salary, at least not in Tokyo. Nurses pull that much and in every country I know nurses are not considered to be paid well.

Anything over a million per month is decent though I know guys for whom that is just their p4p budget.
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Wow. Million per month sounds fucking a lot... Where to find such job? Or what king of job should that be? Biggest one salary I got was actually 1 milion per month but that was from IT scientist in his 60s working in company for more then 20 years.
 
Asking what a "good" salary is is like asking how much a bottle of wine costs.

You have to take into account age, occupation, experience, education, geographical location, industry...... and of course, your own negotiating ability.

A 21 year old fresh out of school would be ecstatic to make 5 million a year.

If I found myself making five million a year again, I'd probably need to go on antidepressants.
 
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I think in general salaries in Japan are low, but so are the costs of living. In the US you would need to devote a substantial portion of your salary to health insurance because the leaders of the western world hate sick people. In the UK you would need to spend about a tenth of your salary on your commute because those crazy poms hate efficiency.

In Japan your employer pays for everything.

However they also typically build a discretionary bonus into your default salary and I know a lot of companies who use that as an opportunity to claw back their hr costs.

Personally I think 5m is awful. 8m is the bare minimum but also probably the top end of what a lot of domestic Japanese companies are willing to pay. 10-12m is a fair wage but to earn it you would likely have to work with startup douchebags (and risk losing your salary every time your sketchy silions valley startup pivots out of Japan) or investment banking douchebags.
 
Sudsy said:
Asking what a "good" salary is is like asking how much a bottle of wine costs.

You have to take into account age, occupation, experience, education, geographical location, industry...... and of course, your own negotiating ability.

A 21 year old fresh out of school would be ecstatic to make 5 million a year.

If I found myself making five million a year again, I'd probably need to go on antidepressants.
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IMO, in the Tokyo gaijin skilled labor market, luck is big part of it. If you are competing with Japanese workers, then it is different, but most gaijin who make over 8 or 9 mil have their jobs because they are gaijin with the language, culture, attitude and experience that only gaijin have. And the skilled gaijin labor market is small, specialized and moves quickly. Specific positions requiring very specific combinations of skills and experience combined with J language open and close pretty quickly. At least good ones do I think.
 
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Sudsy said:
Asking what a "good" salary is is like asking how much a bottle of wine costs.

You have to take into account age, occupation, experience, education, geographical location, industry...... and of course, your own negotiating ability.

A 21 year old fresh out of school would be ecstatic to make 5 million a year.

If I found myself making five million a year again, I'd probably need to go on antidepressants.
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Well, I understand that. That is why I was asking for different opinions from different aged people. Maybe here it is very different, because in my country there is of course distribution by industries and places (capital - big town - countryside) but overall there is common understanding for "mere" people what should be good salary. Of course I do not speak for big business owners and other people who live in other existence plane.

Ok. Maybe lets then narrow criteria. We are speaking about Tokyo, person between 25-35 and some nicely paid job. Like IT, maybe some middle level manager etc. What is considered good salary in such case?

P.S. Well, as for my info, for 21 year old even 3 milion per year is good salary here. Is my information wrong?

P.P.S. And anyway what should be the JOB to earn 10+ million per year? Department manager in Toyota\Sony? I mean if you have business that is different topic, but for hired person this sound HELL ALOT.
 
If you are 21 and you have a job that pays enough for you to survive, then you are off the boat and on the beach. You now need to figure out your next move. You should be aiming for a spot where you can learn something specific so you can command a better salary at your next move after that. If you are getting close to 30 and you are not at least at 10 million, well then you either don’t care about money or you fucked up. Go for 20 mil by 30. Post again when you get there.
 
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You will not earn 10-12 million as a gaijin in ajapanese company unless you are exceptionally lucky. To earn that much in Japan you need to be working for a gaijin company. Imho
 
warubuta said:
If you are 21 and you have a job that pays enough for you to survive, then you are off the boat and on the beach. You now need to figure out your next move. You should be aiming for a spot where you can learn something specific so you can command a better salary at your next move after that. If you are getting close to 30 and you are not at least at 10 million, well then you either don’t care about money or you fucked up. Go for 20 mil by 30. Post again when you get there.
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Mother of Cats! If this is not thin trolling, that I was scummed by my previous company MUCH-MUCH more then I was even imagining in worst nightmares....
 
warubuta said:
True. Foreign company only. And try to avoid having a Japanese boss once you are in the foreign company.
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Ye.... Japanese boss is something for anecdotes.... I have never met such bad management in my life before even considering that I was working with managers from EU, US and India....
 
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Sudsy said:
Pick one. The only industry that has many mid level managers in that age bracket is eikaiwa.
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By mid level manager I thought about manager that has around 100 people. I.e. He has team of ~10 field managers where each of them has ~10 workers. I.e. I do not meant manager on level that control only small team, but manager that control group of small teams or department in small company etc.

But if you want "chose one" then let's it be 25-35.
 
Tabanico said:
You will not earn 10-12 million as a gaijin in ajapanese company unless you are exceptionally lucky. To earn that much in Japan you need to be working for a gaijin company. Imho
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Or they hire you as a director to run something they don't think their Japanese guys can run. Then when they tell you "this is how much our directors make" you can answer "so let's add five million to that".
 
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MikeH said:
Or they hire you as a director to run something they don't think their Japanese guys can run. Then when they tell you "this is how much our directors make" you can answer "so let's add five million to that".
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This sounds like story from China, not Japan.
 
ShikkokuNoSenshi said:
P.S. Well, as for my info, for 21 year old even 3 milion per year is good salary here. Is my information wrong?
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Considering you can make about 2.5 million flipping burgers at McD I don't think that is a good salary.

P.P.S. And anyway what should be the JOB to earn 10+ million per year? Department manager in Toyota\Sony? I mean if you have business that is different topic, but for hired person this sound HELL ALOT.
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I have hired sales guys from anywhere between 10 and 14 million a year excluding sales commissions.
 
ShikkokuNoSenshi said:
By mid level manager I thought about manager that has around 100 people. I.e. He has team of ~10 field managers where each of them has ~10 workers. I.e. I do not meant manager on level that control only small team, but manager that control group of small teams or department in small company etc.

But if you want "chose one" then let's it be 25-35.
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Yeah... you clearly have no understanding of the job market whatsoever.

Go back to school.
 
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Sudsy said:
Yeah... you clearly have no understanding of the job market whatsoever.

Go back to school.
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All my life before Japan I was working in big companies with 1000+ people and structure of management was always like that. From IT department of one of the biggest Eastern Europe banks, to very big outsource developer to biggest Eastern Europe outsource developer. Structure was that. If you worked in different structures in Asia then sorry, I came here not so much time ago and worked firstly in SUPER SCUM japanese IT company about which I will tell jokes by the end of my life and in small developer for big automakers where my shacho is owner of the company.
 
ShikkokuNoSenshi said:
P.S. Well, as for my info, for 21 year old even 3 milion per year is good salary here. Is my information wrong?
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That's about right. Graduate salaries are very low in Japan, close to 240,000yen a month is typical even for professionals. If you don't live with your parents then you'll be living in a dog box, which doesn't matter much as you'll only be going there to sleep.
 
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