Hello!
I am currently in the final stages in a series of interviews for an tools programmer position at a game studio in Tokyo and I have been offered 5.85M¥ with transport + bonus included and 15hrs/month of paid overtime (billed separately). Is this a reasonable salary for living in Tokyo?
For context, I am a single M (late 20s) with ~4 YoE in performance-critical embedded programming. I wanted to pivot towards game-dev (engine/tools) but the pay is slightly lower than my current pay in EU.
My question is, does embedded pay higher in Japan? Or should I target backend roles in web-dev as well (if they pay higher)?
Moreover, is there a specific salary band-range that I should look out for per YoE?
4 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Software engineering salary bands per YoE?**
Hello!
I am currently in the final stages in a series of interviews for an tools programmer position at a game studio in Tokyo and I have been offered 5.85M¥ with transport + bonus included and 15hrs/month of paid overtime (billed separately). Is this a reasonable salary for living in Tokyo?
For context, I am a single M (late 20s) with ~4 YoE in performance-critical embedded programming. I wanted to pivot towards game-dev (engine/tools) but the pay is slightly lower than my current pay in EU.
My question is, does embedded pay higher in Japan? Or should I target backend roles in web-dev as well (if they pay higher)?
Moreover, is there a specific salary band-range that I should look out for per YoE?
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The average salary for a programmer in Tokyo is about 5m6 without bonuses and stuff
Then you can check online and see the taxes rate. Average rent for a solo guy etc etc
I’m currently in the recruitment process for a job in IT (support/analyst/programer) for around 5m yen (won’t pay taxes on this so that’s what I’m paid and will get)
Should be good enough I believe
For rent the average for a studio is around 74k so around 888 000 yen (just rent, not the fees, etc etc) but if you want z bit bigger it’s almost double so 137k so 1m650 yen so one third of my potential salary (I might get a renting help from the company not sure yet)
Average grocery shopping for one person is around 38k yen so 456k yen
From my 5m I’m down to 2m9 yen just for grocery and rent (but it’s average not median so if there are some big spenders I should be able to save more)
Then I’m French. Meaning I might want to go back in Paris once in a while (let’s say once a year or once every two year).
I also love cheese and it’s crazy expensive in Japan (take it from every french person who have been in Japan)
Same if you love fruits.
So try to check some prices and do a budget.
I would highly recommend this survey:
https://www.tokyodev.com/insights/2022-developer-survey
A few notes:
– It heavily depends on the industry and the type of company (Japanese vs International)
– The job market seems worse compared to last year
[This blog post](https://japan-dev.com/blog/software-developer-salaries-in-japan-the-ultimate-guide) has suggested ranges for each experience level. It’s geared towards foreigners working at the more international companies.