What is considered good salary in Japan

[Frenchy]

Bad advice. He should negotiate his salary when he is entering a new company.

Seriously too, you will never get a decent bump in your current job, decent salaries are made when they take you, not after they already have you.

Sad but true. Unless they pay you to leave, then in some cases it can be quite generous

 

[Jaaz]

Bad advice. He should negotiate his salary when he is entering a new company.

Seriously too, you will never get a decent bump in your current job, decent salaries are made when they take you, not after they already have you.

This. Plenty of recruiters out there looking to get you the best salary (at least the ones that paid based on the salary they negotiate for you).

 

[Ddddd]

> Plenty of recruiters out there looking to get you the best salary

Be careful with that. A recruiter may prefer to get you hired, even if it's with a salary under the market, rather than risking to loose the opportunity if they push for a higher salary.

 

[MikeH]

> Plenty of recruiters out there looking to get you the best salary

Be careful with that. A recruiter may prefer to get you hired, even if it's with a salary under the market, rather than risking to loose the opportunity if they push for a higher salary.

If you are a foreigner I would not rely too much on the headhunters. Their main source of income is getting Japanese guys into foreign companies and they do have very little knowledge on anything else.

 

[Frenchy]

If you are a foreigner I would not rely too much on the headhunters. Their main source of income is getting Japanese guys into foreign companies and they do have very little knowledge on anything else.

I never thought about this but you’re probably right. Always got jobs through my own network , never through headhunters. On the opposite when I want to recruit a Japanese employee I use them. Weird.

 

[Jaaz]

I've only had good experiences with headhunters. Perhaps that's because I'm in IT and have a somewhat rare set of skills, though.

Morgan McKinley puts out a yearly salary guide based on industry and role that I find quite accurate.

 

[User#8628]

Holy hell, I work as a translator, editor, writer and author at a well-known publishing company and I make like 3.3 m a year. What am I doing wrong? I got a wife and kid here, too.

Maybe the writing business is a tough one? I don’t know much about it but from what i hear, hard working authors can not live from their books anymore even if they are reasonably popular and journalists are scraping by... i guess its also the move from paper to digital? Too bad, i love my old fashioned books and magazines.

 

[TAG Manager]

I set a specific target when it comes to salary and benefits - whenever I get a call about changing companies, I entertain the idea but it usually dies when it comes to the overall compensation package topic. (Salary is usually alright but flexible schedules and overseas time is a deal breaker when they refuse.)

I still have space to move up where I am now... but I know I could get a better package if I decided to change companies.

If I were stuck at 3.3m - I’d hunt something else down pronto or leave Japan behind.

 

[Wwanderer]

from what i hear, hard working authors can not live from their books anymore even if they are reasonably popular and journalists are scraping by... i guess its also the move from paper to digital? Too bad, i love my old fashioned books and magazines.

That is definitely a fair description of the writing biz in the NYC publishing community. There is a general sense of panic from what I can tell (I know a number of professional writers), but no one seems to have any idea what to do about it or what to expect next.

-Ww

 

[Sudsy]

decent salaries are made when they take you, not after they already have you.

Can confirm. Not much room for negotiation in most companies after you're hired.

 

[warubuta]

Writers are like tennis players as far as money goes. A few get really rich. Most starve. Translators are being replaced by computers. Editor has never been a high paying job unless it is senior level and for a major outlet - the tennis player analogy applies here too. What are you doing wrong? I don’t know. But I might venture to say that it would help if you had some kind of subject matter expertise in a subject where money moves around: finance, pharma etc.

 

[warubuta]

That is definitely a fair description of the writing biz in the NYC publishing community. There is a general sense of panic from what I can tell (I know a number of professional writers), but no one seems to have any idea what to do about it or what to expect next.

-Ww

The future is clear for creative people. Become a YouTuber. Get a billion subscribers. Get rich off the ads. The challenge to capture peoples attention has not changed. Its just a different format.

 

[Kris Black]

Welp, I think it's about time I moved back stateside and started looking for work there.

 

[warubuta]

Can’t you get a job at Bloomberg or Reuters? Those shops pay 5 mil to the people who empty the garbage cans for Christ sakes.

 

[Wwanderer]

The future is clear for creative people. Become a YouTuber. Get a billion subscribers. Get rich off the ads. The challenge to capture peoples attention has not changed. Its just a different format.

I don't disagree, but this is not an answer for a lot of writers because the skill set is different. In other words, being creative is not enough to be a successful YouTuber; you also need "stage presence", speaking ability and so forth.

-Ww

 

[warubuta]

I don't disagree, but this is not an answer for a lot of writers because the skill set is different. In other words, being creative is not enough to be a successful YouTuber; you also need "stage presence", speaking ability and so forth.

-Ww

High quality professional writing seems to have less value these days. Then again, I think people have been saying that since the advent of radio. Also, not to mock or belittle your writer friends, the image of a bunch of them sitting around bemoaning their job security in an uncertain future is a bit humorous to me. They deliberately chose what was almost certainly going to be a low-pay low-security profession. Didn’t they know that when they signed up?

 

[Tokidoki]

Can’t you get a job at Bloomberg or Reuters? Those shops pay 5 mil to the people who empty the garbage cans for Christ sakes.

You got a chuckle out of me.

 

[MikeH]

Didn’t they know that when they signed up?

Well, most people don't. You basically decide your career when you are just in high school and thus no nothing beyond how to masturbate with your dominant hand. And the information about the possible careers and how much you can expect to get paid is not very widely available, or at least did not used to be.

Add to that that situations change and maybe nowadays faster than ever and you basically have people coin tossing their future. Some get lucky just by chance, some get screwed even if they are smart.

 

[Wwanderer]

High quality professional writing seems to have less value these days. Then again, I think people have been saying that since the advent of radio. Also, not to mock or belittle your writer friends, the image of a bunch of them sitting around bemoaning their job security in an uncertain future is a bit humorous to me. They deliberately chose what was almost certainly going to be a low-pay low-security profession. Didn’t they know that when they signed up?

I heard one of them, one of the most successful ones actually, tell a group of aspiring young writers that no one should go into writing as a career unless they felt so driven and compelled to write that they basically had no other choice. He then listed some of the ways in which it is a horrible profession.

Not everyone chooses a career based on its earning potential or job security of course.

-Ww

 

[warubuta]

Well, most people don't. You basically decide your career when you are just in high school and thus no nothing beyond how to masturbate with your dominant hand. And the information about the possible careers and how much you can expect to get paid is not very widely available, or at least did not used to be.

Add to that that situations change and maybe nowadays faster than ever and you basically have people coin tossing their future. Some get lucky just by chance, some get screwed even if they are smart.

Your last two sentences are correct. The rest are incorrect. Nobody ever in the history of mankind regardless of location decides their career in high school. I masturbate with my not-dominant hand. Information on salaries has always been very available. You just have to ask around.

 

[warubuta]

I heard one of them, one of the most successful ones actually, tell a group of aspiring young writers that no one should go into writing as a career unless they felt so driven and compelled to write that they basically had no other choice. He then listed some of the ways in which it is a horrible profession.

Not everyone chooses a career based on its earning potential or job security of course.

-Ww

Good advice. On the other hand, being a good writer is important. Just don’t try to make a living from it alone.

 

[brian911]

Bad advice. He should negotiate his salary when he is entering a new company.

Seriously too, you will never get a decent bump in your current job, decent salaries are made when they take you, not after they already have you.

Spot on!

One of my co-worker said he didn't get any salary increase for .... 6 years, not even 1 yen.

He did fulfill his duties though.

 

[warubuta]

Spot on!

One of my co-worker said he didn't get any salary increase for .... 6 years, not even 1 yen.

He did fulfill his duties though.

Yea but he got a raise every year as the cost of living in Japan has been flat or declining for 20 years.

 

[buffet]

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

I had a sugarbaby last year who just graduated from college. She told me that 300,000 yen per month is a really great salary for a new grad. It did not include any subsidy for housing but included the train pass to and from work and a bonus of 1 month's pay each year.

 

[Durg50]

I had a sugarbaby last year who just graduated from college. She told me that 300,000 yen per month is a really great salary for a new grad. It did not include any subsidy for housing but included the train pass to and from work and a bonus of 1 month's pay each year.

For a new grad that is a better than average salary yes.
However Im assuming she is bilingual and attractive, in which case 300k is lower than average for that type. Google, Amazon, all the investment banks pay around 400k for attractive bilingual women with half a brain to sit around and do ‘marketing’ or ‘account management’.
Train pass is standard for everyone working in japan.