Let’s face the reality first.

The adult average salary in Japan:

Employment Type	Avg Salary	Male	Female
Full time	approx. 5.08mill	approx. 5.70 mill	approx. 3.89 mill
Part time or contract	approx 1.98mill

The base minimum hourly wage was raised to ¥1004/hr  which is around a whopping $6.92 USD  at today’s exchange rate.

Iwate prefecture clocks in at one of the lowest with  ¥896/hr.

According to this government survey, a key characteristic is that while there is no significant difference in annual income in the 20s, the gap between male and female workers tends to widen from their 30s onward.

Source:   https://www.nta.go.jp/publication/statistics/kokuzeicho/minkan2021/pdf/002.pdf

By Age:

Age range	Avg	Made	Female
20~24	2.69 mill	2.87 mill	2.49 mill
25~29	3.71 mill	4.04 mill	3.28 mill
30~34	4.13 mill	4.72 mill	3.22 mill
34~39	4.49 mill	5.33 mill	3.21 mill
40~44	4.80 mill	5.84 mill	3.24 mill
45~49	5.04 mill	6.30 mill	3.28 mill
50~54	5.20 mill	6.64 mill	3.28 mill
55~59	5.29 mill	6.87 mill	3.16 mill
60~64	4.23 mill	5.37 mill	2.62 mill
65~69	3.38 mill	4.23 mill	2.16 mill
Over 70	3.00 mill	3.69 mill	2.10 mill
Avg	4.43 mill

Source：National Tax Administration Agency, “2021 Statistical Survey of Private Sector Remuneration,” 2021.

By Industry:

Ranking	Industry	Avg salary
1	Electricity, gas, heat, water	7.66 mill
2	Financial, insurance	6.77 mill
3	IT and telecommunications industry	6.24mill
4	Academic research and professional services	5.21 mill
5	Academic research, professional and technical services	5.21 mill
6	Education and learning support industry	5.21 mill
7	Manufacturing	5.16 mill
8	Construction	5.11 mill
9	Complex Service Business	4.94 mill
10	Real estate and goods rental	4.26 mill
11	Transportation and postal services	4.25 mill
12	Medical care, welfare	4.07 mill
13	Wholesale and retail	3.77 mill
14	Lifestyle-related services and entertainment	3.69 mill
15	Service industry	3.69 mill
16	Lodging and food services	2.60 mill

Overall, industries related to lifelines, such as electricity, gas, heat supply, and water supply, tend to have high annual incomes.

Source ：National Tax Administration Agency, “2021 Statistical Survey of Private Sector Salaries

 

But Why?

Why is the salary level so low?

After seeing the data, it’s pretty dismal, yes I know.

Combined with outdated corporate culture and long hours, there seems to be no reason to endure this.

But why doesn’t the whole country crumble into a huge civil uprising?

Well, one major factor is that low pay is a trade off for lifetime employment and financial security.

This financial security is tied into all the banking loans and financial systems as well.

Most respected, larger corporations, due to strict Japanese working laws, technically cannot fire you. That’s why, even if you were a crappy employee, you may find yourself simply transferred to an unproductive division instead of being canned.

This topic of job security, which warrants a different blog post altogether, is directly related to the slow reaction times of Japanese corporations.

 

Learn Japanese for that extra edge

Unlike most western countries which value skill over loyalty and length of employment,  most major Japanese corporations are stuck in the hiring system where guaranteed lifetime employment is the norm. This is one of the reasons why corporations are so slow when reacting to things, because they cannot act quickly, or sometimes do not have the human assets to counter the quick changes of the time.

Of course, that is changing but in general, the stereotype still holds true.

One factor that is a make-it or break-it skill is language.

The truth is, you should have a strong knowledge of Japanese if you want to really go anywhere.

It’s not impossible to climb the ladder without it, but you will have far more opportunities and deeper relationships if you can speak.

My personal take is that if you were serious about anything, learn the language. I worked in so many companies where the foreigner who could not speak, were always left out of the good stories. It wasn’t about racism or anything like that. It has more to do with the fact that the Japanese staff are overworked as it is, held to a stiff standard and with all the need for maximum efficiency at play, don’t have time to slow down and teach Japanese to a foreigner. It’s just a corporate reality.

If you can read and write Japanese, you will gain a tremendous advantage.

Even if you cannot handwrite the kanji , but can use software you’ll have an undeniably large advantage over your counterparts who can only speak.

 

So what to do?

If you can, try going to a  foreign company that respects the global wage standards.

Obviously, those may require a higher educational degree, especially if you’re going into the finance, pharmaceutical or tech industries.

If you’re lucky enough to work at a company that is considering sending you to Japan for a couple years, that is probably your best gig.

I know many people who have been offered to stay in Japan and run the Japanese office.

I strongly advise against working at a small to midsize Japanese company, because you’ll have much less of a chance at changing the corporate climate, especially if you get stuck with an unpleasant Japanese boss.

Also, try to steer clear of very old, traditional companies because they cling to the old corporate styles almost as if it was a badge of honor.

Anything over 35 years is a yellow flag, and really do your due diligence on companies that are 50 to 100 years old.

 

Closing

It may seem like a lost cause but it’s not.

It’s weird, you wonder how people can survive with such low salaries, and with exchange rate, now being as bad as it is, (¥145 at the time of writing) many Japanese cannot afford to travel out of the country.

Depreciation has kept overall prices lower, but now that the rest of the world is moving in a different direction, Japan is faced with a big challenge.

It’s hard to raise interest rates like other countries because then people will not be able to pay off their loans, and their household budget will even be hit harder. \

Many people were assured that their long-term home loans would maintain almost nonexistent interest rates for their whole period, so even a small increase will throw off their expenditures.

When you’re only making ¥4 million a year, considering your take-home salary, that’s a big concern.

I guess if corporations stopped hoarding cash and paid employees higher rates, that might be one solution, but it’s not that easy.

This is because as mentioned before,  Japanese employment at major corporations is not based off worker skills, but more on  lifetime employment, so it really is a headache that the country needs to address at one point.

 

Unfortunately, this cannot last forever and the day of reckoning is coming. Add to this the country’s stringent immigration policy (despite declining birth rate) and you can see why the general population doesn’t trust the Japanese politicians.

All the warning signs have been out there for years and politicians are seen as having done nothing to address it, but rather promote their own individual needs and careers.

But I digress, greatly.

 

All this may have nothing to do with your next potential job in Japan, but this reality does exist, and knowing about it, even in the back of your head, will arm you with knowledge to make better decisions in the working environment.

In the end, I think that from my experience working in Japan, despite all these cautionary factors I brought up, working in Japan could be a great experience.

You’d get to stay in Japan long term and experience all the wonderful things that country has to offer, including nature, gourmet food, and high-tech living.

Most of the bad things about Japan are from the Japanese people anyways.

If you are a good people person, then perhaps, you can create your own ideal working solution. I know many expats who have.

If you want to try living in Japan, be sure to manage expectations and that will be your first step towards a happy stay here in Japan!

 

I’m sure many of you have gone through part of this, what’s your experience been like?

Leave it in the comments below!

After living in Japan, one important thing that I cannot live without is the washlet.

Japanese people and society, place great value on the cleanliness of bathrooms. Not only is it very hygienic, but is also a sign of cultural civility and courtesy. It means people respect bathrooms and try to keep them as clean and comfortable as possible. It is a sanctuary. It is a place that offers comfort to the one activity that all humans must do: going to the bathroom.

Having said that, there are a few misconceptions about the almighty washlet that I thought I’d share here. I mentioned hygiene earlier, but the very systems that make the washlet clean, can also be its enemy.

Namely, the water nozzle.

Make sure that any washlet you use has been regularly maintained. If not, that nozzle that is spraying water into your butt could be a host to other germs and making matters worse.

Thankfully, major areas like airports and hotels regularly maintain their washlet and replace their units so it should not be an issue.

One of the rental properties that I moved into was owned by a family that had a seven and nine-year-old boy.

After we moved in, I couldn’t help but notice the smell of urine, despite having fully cleaned the washlet.

After requesting maintenance, the repair man showed me what the problem was and I was shocked.

We opened the side panel and found that behind the clean and smooth, modern exterior panels of the washlet , the inside was completely covered in syrup-like dried urine, and that was causing the smell. It also had some sort of mold growing around it.

Totally gross.

He mentioned hope common it was and  that it’s difficult to smell your own urine, but it is very easy to smell other people’s urine.

Also, that the washlet needed to be properly maintained on a regular basis.

In this particular case, the kids would miss and pee on the cover for the water nozzle. The pee would then sink in underneath and stain the backside of the plastic and nozzle where normal cleaning and maintenance could not reach.

Combine this with your senior citizen missing the toilet as well, and multiple leakages over the course of 5 to 6 years and you can see where this is going…

Either way, like with anything else in life, the benefits of clean hygiene and comfort only come through a certain level of basic maintenance so keep that in mind the next time you randomly use a washlet somewhere in public.

The other function that really made a difference was the odor eliminating fan. I cannot stress how important of a role this unit was playing in my life up until now.

Most of the middle to high-end models have this at standard equipment. I took it for granted. It uses the low speed fan during use, and after you sit up, it switches to a high-speed fan with the assumption that you will close the lid to let the fan remove the smell.

Back to the rental property, little did I know that the washlet model installed in the house didn’t have a fan…

After using the fan-based washlet for so long, I forgot how much of a big difference the fan makes.

Let me tell you again, it makes a big difference.

It’s like being catapulted into the dark ages to where humans took a crap in a hole.

As of now, the tangy and intense smell of after doing your deed is unbearable every day as I wonder how much longer I can take this crude existence.

I called the property management company  and was denied a replacement. I also looked online to see if they sold just a fan m, but the washlet fans use a special charcoal carbon filter which binds with the smelly atoms.

There were many ozone based deodorizer units out there, but that just opened up a whole new can of worms and would be a project for another day.

So for today, I am still stuck in the medieval times, having to deal with terrible odors after doing my thing.

The deodorizer fan is one of life’s great inventions and although I want to try an aftermarket add-on deodorizer, I can’t help but think that they won’t work as efficiently. The washlet version works because while you are sitting on the toilet seat, you are e creating a complete seal, allowing the small fan inside to effectively collect all the odors before it disseminates into the room itself.

These smaller units that advertise deodorizing could not possibly be as effective because with that small suction fan, it would take a long time to suck in the odor smell once it spread into the toilet room.

The whole point of having the fan is to have instantaneous deodorization, so that if somebody is waiting in line, or you are at a dinner party and don’t want people to know, you wouldn’t have a lingering smell effect or have to wait 30 minutes for the deodorizer to work.

So, alas, to end this deodorizing rant, it seems that the only way to solve it is to purchase a washlet with deodorizing function. But I seriously think about it every single day because it’s that important. Plus I just wanna live the most civilized life possible.

Let me know if you had a similar experience in the comments below! I may just have to try those aftermarket solutions and report back to you!

When cleaning in Japan, don’t forget the corners. Even better yet, start at the corners and work your way in words. People are much more likely to commend your cleaning efforts if the corners are clean, because it means you have a heightened awareness of detail.

Many Japanese like to clean houses and decorate them as if it were café or a retail store.

I think it’s a great idea, and it really focus more attention and love to your possessions because now, instead of just putting them away, you are actually displaying them to see.

This means, just like in a retail store or cafe, all bottles, jars and products would be shown with the label facing forward.

You’d be amazed at how much of a difference this makes when cleaning up your own room.

Having said that, as easy as it might be, it’s important to note that this habit should not be mistaken for OCD.

That would make every owner and staff member of a retail store, OCD!

Some people might still say that’s the same thing, but I feel there is a big difference.

Either way, the next time you clean up your room or house, make sure you wipe the corners first. Also take the extra time to line up the labels, facing front, and putting items on display as if it were a retail store. You will be so happy with the results.