Hi everyone.
First, a little bit about me to get the dry details out of the way: I have a B.Sc in CS from a university in my home country, and I have worked as a software developer in the industry for more than a year at this point.
Lately, I’ve started taking steps towards moving to Japan. I applied to a lot of jobs through relocate.me, japan-dev and tokyodev, and to my surprise I even got invited to some interviews.
From the job descriptions and also interviews I already had, I noticed it doesn’t seem to be common to get any help with the relocation process from the company that hires you, aside from the actual visa (which they need to get you anyway if they want you to work for them). In addition to not offering any support, seems like jobs that someone with my experience (time-wise, aka ~1 year) can get don’t pay much. For example, one job that I interviewed for was very clear about how the salary is not gonna be more than ~4.4m jpy/year, if I’ll get it.
Now I will admit that I have still to really go deep-dive into how expensive it is to actually live in Japan, so I don’t know if it’s possible to live humbly but comfortably with this sum. But I can tell that this example salary is only around half what I make now, in my own country.
I don’t mind making less money, as long as I can still live decently. I’m just not sure this amount allows that, so I wanted to ask here for thoughts/other points of view on the matter.
I assume that as long as I make the move, I might find better jobs in the future. I’m mainly worried about… is it enough to live by until I can get those better jobs?
4 comments
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**Software Develop Visa Support, Salary**
Hi everyone.
First, a little bit about me to get the dry details out of the way: I have a B.Sc in CS from a university in my home country, and I have worked as a software developer in the industry for more than a year at this point.
Lately, I’ve started taking steps towards moving to Japan. I applied to a lot of jobs through relocate.me, japan-dev and tokyodev, and to my surprise I even got invited to some interviews.
From the job descriptions and also interviews I already had, I noticed it doesn’t seem to be common to get any help with the relocation process from the company that hires you, aside from the actual visa (which they need to get you anyway if they want you to work for them). In addition to not offering any support, seems like jobs that someone with my experience (time-wise, aka ~1 year) can get don’t pay much. For example, one job that I interviewed for was very clear about how the salary is not gonna be more than ~4.4m jpy/year, if I’ll get it.
Now I will admit that I have still to really go deep-dive into how expensive it is to actually live in Japan, so I don’t know if it’s possible to live humbly but comfortably with this sum. But I can tell that this example salary is only around half what I make now, in my own country.
I don’t mind making less money, as long as I can still live decently. I’m just not sure this amount allows that, so I wanted to ask here for thoughts/other points of view on the matter.
I assume that as long as I make the move, I might find better jobs in the future. I’m mainly worried about… is it enough to live by until I can get those better jobs?
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4.4M / year is a junior dev salary on par with 23-27 year old people assuming base + bonus.
Offering relocation isn’t a standard practice, but in the end any company that does take a risk by upfronting you money at the start would offset it later on somehow like giving you a smaller bonus or a longer trial period. I wouldn’t worry about that part too much.
As for being able to live comfortably….
4.4M per year is like 360,000 a month and after taxes and other mandatory deductions, that will drop to maybe 320,000.
In the 23 wards of Tokyo, the average cost of a 1 person apartment within 1 km of a major station is about 120,000 a month which on a 320,000 per month budget is pretty high. I would budget another 150,000 a month on food, eating out, going places, cell phone utilities and setting up your place. That won’t leave you much to save.
If you live out a bit farther like Chiba or Saitama bordering Tokyo, rent for a similar 1 person bedroom could be as low as 70,000 to 80,000 a month.
I definitely think 4.4M is enough to “get by” and look for new opportunities. Although a word of warning is that salary increases in Japan don’t come by quickly. Salaries usually only increase around 2-4% a year. To get larger increases, you either have to do a phenomenal job and get promoted, or job hop a lot.
The sweet spot for engineering jobs in Japan seems to be 4+ years (mid-career). Below that, companies tend to steer towards entry-level college grads through the various systems in place for them (resident internship programs and whatnot).
Getting offers with 1 YoE while abroad is surprising but a good sign for you. 4.4mil might be difficult in Tokyo, but living just a bit further out of the city could prove a much more affordable area, at the cost of travel time.
If you can handle a few years living on that, you’ll likely have no trouble moving up in a few years.
If you’re being offered 4.4m with your level of experience, I’d take it.
I spent a full year job searching and most entry level-ish jobs (0-3 years experience) for tech were offering 2-3m per year. I found one for 4.5m entry level and jumped on it.
It’s roughly 300,000 a month after taxes for me, and it’s plenty for living in Tokyo.