Why salary in Japan is so low but people work so serious?

31 comments

1. !!!

2. But the wage difference was smaller just until a few years ago. Then global inflation/wage hike and yen’s sharp fall made its wage very low in Japan.

   Honestly, wages in Japan are low now. But most Japanese people do not have an option to work in other countries because they speak only Japanese.

3. Indoctrination. I know of a salesman for a housing refurbishment company who gets paid about $50K but earns the company over $1.2M in customer sales. The family of owners all drive luxury German cars but he was too afraid to ask for a salary increase.

4. I take a lot more pride in working than I do enjoying things.

5. BTW, you may not see Japanese webs. But if you look at online community like Reddit but in Japanese, MANY of Japanese people whine like,

   “My salary is too low”
   “Japan is becoming a poor nation”
   “I can’t get married because of low income”

   “I can’t have children”

   So they definitely are not satisfied with the situation now. They just whine online but never act in the real world.

6. Because the cost of living is low. Wages typically increase when the cost of living increases because people either refuse jobs with lower pay or because they demand their job to pay more while threatening to leave. Inflation is also a factor which hasn’t been so bad in Japan (although recently we’re experiencing some problems due to global inflation).

   5 million yen in Tokyo is a good life. America’s most comparible city is New York: can you live on 5 million yen in New York? How about Las Angeles?

7. Because it’s possible to live comfortably in Japan on 5 million yen, as long as you are frugal and budget properly.

8. It’s a great question.

   I used to marvel at the service I would get from gasoline stands in the early 90s. The happiest, cheeriest appearing staff of gas pumpers I had ever seen.

9. I’ve moved to Japan twice becasue we get paid more than in the US…

   It is totally dependent on what it is you do for a living.

   Life in Japan is nice.

10. I think it depends on where you originally from.🤔

    I’m from a south Asian 3rd world country. I’m a mechanic working full time in a Japanese truck dealership. came here right after graduating highschool, only took two years of japanese language school and two years of vocational training school ( no college degree whatsoever) and now I’m making 270-300k¥ monthly ( 手取り) I own a car and a apartment I like and live a comfortable life,　
    while my friends back in home country makes like 20-40k¥ maximum even with college degrees and mostly office jobs still struggling due to sky high inflation there.

11. Why do you think salaries in Japan are ‘low’?

    Compared to what?

    Simply converting a number in yen to some other currency is meaningless – the same number in yen converted to USD now wil be much lower than it was 18 months ago, but *the person receiving that JPY in Japan has seen almost no real change*.

    If you’re stuck in a low-end job, you’re more likely to complain on a website. You’re less likely to be on a website going on about how great you have it.

    In other words: the plural of anecdote is not ‘data’.

    The cost of living in Japan is much lower than in, say, the US. A big part of that is housing: As a public policy, Japan’s government has focused on making housing – gasp! – *affordable*. They’ve managed to avoid the short-term NIMBY-ism tha plagues the US and many countries in Europe. There is no reason your house should be treated as a forced-savings/investment vehicle other than citizens are shit at saving money.

    In Japan, the housing supply has basically tripled since the 1970s. In NY housing has increased maybe 30% over the same itme period. Japanese renters spent 20% on disposable income (on average) on rent, vs over 30% in the US.

12. Prior to the us/eu rate hike and collapse of the exchange rate, japanese salaries were not much different from those in Europe

13. I think culturally, Japanese people want to do well at whatever they’re doing. As an American, I often think about worth. I don’t want to perform higher than my wage. I often do anyway because I work for a small company and I do have a sense of “ownership” that I feel the better performing staff also have. Those staff are also Japanese. Other American staff tend to try to get away with doing less work. They don’t value what they do as much. And I don’t blame them! There’s little real appreciation when you do real well, your pay won’t change, and you just end up working harder. Also sucks when the owner talks to customers about how inflation is a good thing because everyone has more money now (which is probably not true for locals) while not adjusting the staffs’ wages.

14. Because yen is low. Imagine, your global buying power has just fallen 30% these few years. Then you had lack of inflation prior to the yen falling + lost decades, so you were coming off a low base in developed world. Grad friends now easily work for 250k-300k per month, working til 7pm with no promotion prospects, in corporates. If you want promotion prospects, need to work for same salary to 11pm. I mean that’s the truth, but you’ll always get people here who get upset Japan is being criticised as they left their country to come here, hopefully not for anime.

    In meantime you have Kishida and LDP rule the country. Lol

15. People are serious about it because work is more than just a salary. It is part of the fabric of society. And as such people take it to heart.

16. I freaking hate that when I meet someone say they want to live in Japan but the yen is so cheap, so they want a “US” salary. Self interest son of a b*****

17. Ya working kyabakura you hear how much Japanese old guys talk about how much their jobs suck but they can’t stop working or they die

    Sometimes you get the guys who are just considering to die

18. Too few workers in unions is a factor.
    The higher the concentration of workers in unions, the better the wages and benefits.
    Unionised workplaces in Japan have seen higher wage rises than those without unions (the latter places are lucky to get any kind of raise).
    On top of that, unions are able to combat exploitative working practices, such as excess overtime, that leads to stress.

19. My theory is that at least some jobs assume you are a single woman living with your parents and thus don’t have to pay rent

20. OP tone sounds like another white savior attitude. You sounds like you go to a third world country to tell everyone their salary is so much cheaper than US so why bother working at all.
    It’s where they live matters. See what they will
    shove into you.
    Capable enough people who can’t stand the low payment already moved outside the country and get USD payments. You are mocking the rest of normal population.

21. Because after WW2 people shifted to recovering and rebuilding Japan. Companies couldn’t pay a lot, but the pride in working for a good company AND pride in helping to rebuild Japan to become the envy of the world were enough for most people. The Bubble years were proof of that pay-off. And even after that crashed, the mindset stayed the same at companies.

    If I remember correctly, most companies have huge amounts saved up and they could easily raise wages, but they don’t. And one possible reason is that while wages are low, they are low across the board and that kind of prevents the kind of class issues you see in the US or South Korea.

    As for stress. People don’t have good outlets for expressing themselves (imo). And a lot of people feel pressured to fit themselves into a specific space. And since there aren’t good avenues for expressing one’s stress, it explodes onto “others” like customer service workers.
    People put a ton of pressure on themselves, can’t live up to their own standards, get angry at themselves and take that out on others.

22. This again. Do you really think there’s any proper answer to it? Like “Because we love to work, like ants!”, or “We are too dumb to work rationally!”, or”We all are born slave, that’s why! “….? Don’t you think this question might contain somewhat of insult to us Japanese??? For what reason do you have to ask the question??? Can you be like this when you actually talking to some random Japanese person, like, “your income is so low, why are you so serious about your work? Is there any reason for it? Oh by the way, I once have got bullied because I look like Asian! ” ….

23. But if you look Asian, they will treat you as a Japanese; but you did something that is not how Japanese do it – they will be harsh on you.

24. It’s getting worse and worse. Even compared to a couple years ago, there’s a big difference.

25. The only way to enjoy living in Japan is as an expat on a good expense pkg with good allowance and rent and utilities paid for. The locals barely survive and life is tough.

26. Everyone says that, but it’s not necessarily true. Many of my friends make 6 figures in their 20s in Tokyo. There are great jobs in Japan. You just need skills and a degree from a good university.

27. Seems just to be the culture. Which is nice from a customer perspective, but obviously shit when you’re the one that has to be super serious while getting paid pennies.

    But I think it’s less so when you go out to the country side where people are more relaxed. Tokyo is uptight.

28. Yes it is low. You just have to accept that as part of life here.

29. All you’re going to get asking such a question here will be takes from Americans, not anecdotes from actual Japanese people

30. Japanese are also not satisfied by their salary, but their is no culture of asking vocally for raise, or switching jobs to get 20-30% raise. Most employees join a company for life.

    Corporations know this and they exploit it pretty well. They know they can get away with no raises and employees won’t ask or quit, and if they try to quit, the next offer will also lowball their CTC, because of the leverage companies have.

31. Because they’re enculturated at an early age to sacrifice everything for the system. Individual rights be damned. That’s why people literally work themselves to death. They don’t want to let the system down.