– Me and my wife spend around ¥170,000 a month on the house and food.
– In my current job I’m on 3,700,000 a year but want to ask for a salary rise before having our first child.
– We feel that 4,500,000 is sufficient for us, but I’m looking for advise from someone who has experience with parenthood in Japan to share opinion
– My wife plans to do part time work from home just to help with paying for fun stuff on days off.
May I ask what salary parents here are earning and what they feel is a comfortable salary?
I live in Nagoya
13 comments
That depends on your job and what the salaries are like.
Do you think your employer will give you that much? Then ask.
Cost of living is going up, taxes are going up. If they value you they will give you what you ask. If not, start looking elsewhere.
4.5mn is the average salary in Japan. But can be highly dependent on your age if you are in a japanese company. Salary raise may not be a thing, so better to ask for a promotion. Or better yet, switch jobs if you speak a decent level of Japanese there are many companies looking for bilinguals in Nagoya right now.
Note that when you have a child your company may give you a monthly stipend of like 7000 yen. Also your city might give you a stipend as well. Mine give me 1.5man a month and another 3man for day care after age 4.
When i had my first child i moved out of the city to a larger apt that was also cheaper than what I was living in before. But to be honest, other than diapers, and the loss of income by moving to a single earner household, the baby didn’t really feel like it cost anything for the first 2 years.
That all being said, I know a lot of families making between 3.5-4.5mn with 1-2 kids in Nagoya, so it will be doable. I do notice that there is a lot more financial support from the japanese in-laws that can help with some of those costs.
Do you want trips “home” every year or two to visit the overseas family? Do you want your kid to be bilingual enough to have the option of university overseas one day ( extra tutoring, Juku, international schools etc are extremely expensive)? Do you have any saving for emergencies? Babies are cheap, kids are more (stuff like sports and activities can be pricey) and teens can cost a fortune. Do you own a house? Do you have family that can help out if needed? I think 4 500 000 a year is enough for the very basics. But not enough for any enrichment activities or emergencies
That depends on a lot of factors. Some people here and in Japan in general live on 4M annually with kids. Others have a combined income of 20M and higher. Really depends on where you live, what you do for a living, what kind of lifestyle you want.
I don’t have the link handy right now but over 60% of companies have either raised base pay or are planning on doing so.
Depending on what field you’re in, changing jobs might be the best option to get a decent pay jump.
Your wife will be limited to earning under 1.3M (IIRC) otherwise she’ll have to enroll on social insurance herself.
You make more than you spend. I assume you also have some savings/no debt. In that case you should have no immediate financial worries. Just keep thinking long-term about how you can increase your income in a way that’s compatible with your family lifestyle goals.
About ¥8.5 M for my wife and I although she only works part time. We have two children and do not feel well off at all. Raising kids in Japan is very expensive.
I live in Tokyo on about 5.5m yen and my wife has had some difficulty going back to work after having the baby and has been unemployed for the last six months. I’ve been paying for everything and it’s been quite tight. Getting by but not really comfortable because it’s kinda stressful seeing your per month savings cut.
We have had some unusual things in the last few months though such as my family visiting and moving apartment, which always costs a fucking fortune.
It’s been tough doing it only on my salary but my wife is working again now, so that probably puts us back into comfortable, but not rich territory.
It’s difficult to really say for you but I’d say that with hoikuen costs, the baby costs us an extra 50,000-70,000 per month and the hoikuen costs 30 per month. However, we get a stipend from the city to offset it of 15,000.
One more thing, and I don’t know if I’m going to explain this well, but before the baby we were living cheap and kinda like slobs. We had to raise our game to have better living standards and that costs money! For example, we had quite old and grimey furniture that we had to replace.
You are on around average household salary for Japan. However rather than focusing on an appropriate number you need to think about finances as part of an overall plan including any future goals you have (children’s education, buying a house, retirement planning, etc).
Adequate retirement planning is essential as Japanese pensions are very low as a proportion of working income, especially if you are only on the basic national pension.
In the long run, inflation will gradually eat away at Japanese living standards – if you stay on 4.5 million for 20 years it is likely only to have the same purchasing power as 2.5 million today.
I use 180.000 a month with one kid. Plus the 15.000 we get for the kid (government) . some times we have plenty left or we go a little over. That’s include all, food , electricity, “rent”, Gas, water, all streaming service subscriptions (we have mostly all 😂), kindergarten, park spot, car and etc.
My wife do arubaito as time off from the kid. Like 4 times a week ,4 hours . That money she use as she wish (around 60.000 month).
I make around 9,000,000 year.
Is comfortable with one kid but not 2. We are both foreign so going back to her country all family get expensive (airplane , hotels). my country is ok bcoz my company pay all my expenses (family included).
I mean comfortable like, I can save around 100.000 + nisa and other every month and still buy my stuff and go out. When I don’t buy stuff I can save more than 200.000 monthly. I save it bcoz all my family had cancer so I need any penny just in case.
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h01631/#:~:text=A%20survey%20conducted%20in%20Japan,were%20first%20gathered%20in%201976.
Your username lmaooo
An “average” salary is not the appropriate statistic, as the average include everyone from those making 1 mil. a year to millionaires. The better question is the median salary. The median salary in Japan for 2022 was approximately ¥545,000 per month (¥6,540,000 annually), which is still low before taxes.
FYI, before the bubble of the late 80s, ¥300,000 a month (¥3.6 million per year before taxes) was considered a “starter salary,” good enough to survive on (assuming you were single or maybe newly married at 25 years old and had parental assistance) and did not live too close to Tokyo.
inflation has risen about 25% in Japan in the last 25-30 years — very approximate). You can calculate the rest for yourself.
Oh misread thought was asking how much a parent spends