Do electrical engineers get paid poorly in Japan?

I was looking it up online, and it said the average pay for an electrical engineer 3400000 yen, or $25000 a year. That’s less than $15 an hour in the US. I heard they aren’t as strict on foreigners in the workplace, but even without that, that’s such a low amount for the degree. Are there any electrical engineers who have worked in Japan, or currently work there who have input on this?

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

    **Do electrical engineers get paid poorly in Japan?**

    I was looking it up online, and it said the average pay for an electrical engineer 3400000 yen, or $25000 a year. That’s less than $15 an hour in the US. I heard they aren’t as strict on foreigners in the workplace, but even without that, that’s such a low amount for the degree. Are there any electrical engineers who have worked in Japan, or currently work there who have input on this?

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  2. Compared to the US, everyone in Japan gets paid poorly. The salary for every professional job is 20-40% less in Japan. Not just for foreigners, but for everyone.

  3. everyone is paid less but costs of living are very different, rent being the most obvious one.

  4. Depends on your definition of Electrical Engineer.

    Right off the bat, the 3400000/year electrical engineer probably isn’t an EECS working at semiconductor giant like Intel, it’s probably the guy putting wiring in your home. There are fewer and fewer EECS jobs in Japan relatively speaking and at a glance a salary for that would probably be more like 7 or 8M.

  5. The median income is 4.61 million yen for men and 2.8 million yen for women. 340,000 yen per month is a good income here.

    That said, what kind of electrical engineering do you plan to do in Japan? You don’t get a visa for putting wires in during construction.

  6. Like almost any other field you’ll be getting paid far less in Japan than in the US.

    I work in chip design here at a foreign company. I get paid above the domestic average but below what you’d get in Silicon Valley.

  7. Im an EE but you are fundamentally looking at it wrong, you dont compare to the US lmao. A trip to the dentist for a root canal costs $100 instead of $2500

  8. My company is basically all EE/similar+Management+Sales/Marketing. The lowest paid EEs get paid 5 million and it goes up from there, but “most” are 7.5 million up to 15 million. 15 million is probably a hard cap for most people in the company.

  9. Japan salaries have lagged or declined in many areas – especially in anything technical. Software engineers in Japan typically earn roughly half their US counterparts.

  10. Most jobs are paid way less in Japan for the same thing.

    Example:
    Amazon Warehouse in US can pay anywhere from $16 to $23 an hour.
    Amazon in Japan is usually 1150 ( $8.5 ) for the exact same job.

  11. Not at all! Lmao

    I’m an electronics engineer, which is totally different, but refrain to the fact that the initial salary for one that’s not experienced can be a bit lower than in US but surely kinda high if ya have more than 5 years of experience. Also, although the salary here may be lower than in US, for example, the life cost is AT LEAST the half. AT LEAST, depending on the city you live in it surely can get to 20% only, compared to living in Newark eg!!!

    If ya gonna compare the salaries, ya need to compare the life cost. In the end, even if you get 40% less or so, ya gonna save more than living in US, 100% for sure! The real deal is salary / life cost!

  12. Generally speaking, everybody(both local people and people from abroad) in Japan gets paid much less than in the USA.

    Expenses in Japan will be much less than the ones in the USA. The governmental insurance covers a lot in Japan and your company pays half for your insurance and pension. Many big companies in Japan also pay some for housing and transportation. You can save much money.

    It’s also much safer and cleaner than in the USA in general, so you don’t need to pay a lot to live in a safe residential area. Eating out is also much more reasonable here.
    My opinion is subjective but I think 28000 USD annual salary lets you have an average life in Japan while you need to earn 52000 or more in order to enjoy an average life in Southern California, for example.

  13. I’m not an electrical engineer in a refrigeration mechanic and the wages are also low. But realistically I can’t even find a job due to not being fluent.

    I highly doubt because you were foreign anyone here would take it easy on you. Japanese people hate mistakes of any kind. 90% of jobs are under paid and over worked.

    Cost of living is drastically lower.

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