Job offer in Tokyo – software engineer

6 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

   —

   **Job offer in Tokyo – software engineer**

   Hi all,

   I received an offer to start as a back-end software engineer at a company in Tokyo, Japan. They sponsor my visa, pay for relocation, and offer a salary of 8 million yen.

   About me:
   – I (m32, Spain) have a spouse but no children. We expect that my spouse wont easily find a job (non-Japanese, not in IT).
   – We do not desire a luxurious lifestyle. We don’t buy expensive brands or cloths and don’t have expensive hobbies.
   – We would like to do fun activities in the weekends, go out for dinner or drinks, buy some stuff from time to time.
   – We want to live in a nice/interesting neighbourhood, preferably some place where other expats also live.
   – Preferably, we are able to save some money each month.

   My two questions:
   – Will the offered salary be sufficient for us?
   – Is the salary appropriate for someone with 5 years of relevant work experience?

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2. ¥8m is well above the average for a household of two adults and children in Tokyo. You will be fine with plenty of money to spare. I supported my spouse and I on ¥8m until he found part time work that led to a f/t job after about a year in Japan.

3. 8M Yen is more than enough for 2 people to live comfortably in Tokyo. If the company is a gaishi (foreign company such as google, oracle, ibm) the offer may be on the lower end for 5 years experience and they are probably expecting you / willing to negotiate. If the company is a Japanese company the offer sounds about right, maybe even on the higher end, and there may be less or no room to negotiate. If the company is a Japanese company but is progressive and has strong foreign influence (mercari, line, paypay) then there may still be room to negotiate.

   For what you’re looking for in a neighborhood I would recommend azabujuban, nakameguro, and ebisu. Just keep in mind you’ll certainly have a little less to save each month in these 3 areas.

4. What language does your wife speak? Your salary will be sufficient but she may get bored if she cant work. Does she speak English?

5. 8M is a good salary, but I think you can get more. Maybe around 10. Tokyo is getting expensive, just like any other place in the world, but slower. I have noticed about 10% increase in expenses overall in the last year or so.
   With 8M, you’d get somewhere between 500-520k per month in your account. Rent really depends on the area, so decide on it later. Groceries you’d need about 50-60k, eating out about 2-4k per meal with your wife. Utilities about 30k for moderate consumption. Traveling is expensive here, I usually spend 10-20k for day trips, and add 15k per night of stay. Budget some money for additional home stuff like toiletries etc at 20k per month.
   So coming back to apartments, if you’d like to save money, your budget should be 100-120k, which may not be enough to get a decent apartment in central Tokyo. But you can get something nice at maybe 45 minutes distance from central Tokyo. Also, a lot of apartments come with heavy upfront costs, such as key money, agency fees, deposits, etc. which can be total of 3-4x of monthly rent, so make sure you arrange that in advance.

6. You’ll be fine but you won’t be able to save any meaningful amount. It’s a good salary only for a single person.
   For a couple, the minimum is 10M+ IMO. You don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck especially if you may go back to Spain.