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The story
On 5ch, a report that the US median household income sits at ¥13.5 million sparked a debate over the gap with Japanese income levels. Some users questioned the straight comparison, citing the cost of living, tax burden, and the weak yen, while others cited concrete data from checking Walmart grocery prices, noting that items like milk and rice are actually cheaper than in Japan — splitting opinion in the thread.
What people said
If the exploitation of Japan ever stopped, Japan would probably be down around ¥10 million too.
Switzerland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway: "Yeah, exactly" (smirking)
Far from ever ending, the exploitation's only going to grow — what are you gonna do about that?
A carton of eggs is ¥800.
https://www.bk.mufg.jp/column/others/b0079.html
According to a 2023 survey by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the average household income was ¥5.242 million, with a median of ¥4.05 million.
For the median across all age groups, that sounds about right.
Break it down by age bracket and the numbers feel a lot closer to how it actually feels.
That figure includes part-timers (freeters) and the elderly too — don't let it fool you.
Over there too, you can keep your spending down if you try.
People who say this —
back when Japan's average monthly income was ¥300,000 and Southeast Asia's was ¥30,000, 30 years ago,
were they saying 'Japan's too expensive, Southeast Asia's better' back then?
According to a 2023 survey by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the average household income was ¥5.242 million, with a median of ¥4.05 million.
Quite a gap between the two ministries' numbers.
Re Re: #25 — the Health Ministry survey covers all households, including the elderly,
while the Internal Affairs Ministry survey seems to lean more toward the working-age generation.
Comparing the raw numbers like that is just dumb.
This isn't about whether people's lives are easy — it's about the difference in currency strength.
Seriously, that's welfare-level living.
Why is the yen weak in the first place? Low interest rates?
But if inflation keeps up, Japan won't stay cheap forever either, right?
Sure, but the inflation is way too slow.
At this rate, even in 10 years Japan won't catch up to the dollar's current strength.
And the gap in national power just keeps widening in the meantime.
Low interest rates, terrible demographics, and finances stuck in a dead end.
Those countries are screwed the second their payment systems go down, lol
Actually, the more cashless a country gets, the more its government tells people to keep some cash on hand as a failsafe against outages.
Felt like prices were roughly 3 to 4 times higher.
Do you get a travel allowance for that?
Having a big country with big houses really is the winning move.
With cramped 'rabbit hutch' homes and the nuclear family as the norm, there's no fixing the birth rate.
this is a country where even ¥8 million a year gets called poverty-level.
Well, developed countries have high prices, that's just how it is.
Japan used to be the same way.
Now Japan's the bargain-bin king.
So would you be happy if both your income and the cost of living doubled?
Why wouldn't that make you happy?
A stronger home currency means cheaper overseas trips and cheaper imports too.
If Japan had America's tax-and-social-security burden rate, sure, people would be happy.
The US burden rate is around 30%.
Japan's is about 50%.
Why would you assume this was about quality of life?
This has only ever been about currency strength.
The moment nobody reads it that way, you've already lost the argument.
'In my head it meant X' — that's worthless.
Even though the thread title literally says 'household income'?
I do, actually.
Invested ¥30 million and it's grown to ¥70 million now.
Japanese stocks are fine too.
If that's the price level and the median income is ¥13.5 million, Americans must be living incredibly well.
Looked it up and turns out America's actually cheaper than Japan, lol
Converting at the weak-yen rate (about ¥159 to the dollar), when it comes to supermarket groceries, Walmart actually has more items that are cheaper than in Japan — that's the honest picture.
US (Walmart) vs. Japan Supermarket Price Comparison
*Exchange rate: $1 = ¥159 (as of August 27, 2026)
• Milk, 1L … US: about ¥116–153 / Japan: about ¥266
• Egg, 1 piece … US: about ¥23–33 / Japan: about ¥31
• Chicken breast, 100g … US: about ¥114–140 / Japan: about ¥156
• Rice, 1kg … US: about ¥280–350 (long-grain) / Japan: about ¥640
• Bread, per 1kg … US: about ¥700–900 / Japan: about ¥534
[Original dollar prices]
Milk (1 gallon) $2.76–3.65 / Eggs (dozen) $1.70–2.50 / Chicken breast (1 lb) $3.24–3.98 / Rice (5 lb) $3.98–4.98
Background and Key Points
The ¥4.05 million figure comes from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s 2023 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions, which counts *all* households, including retirees living on pensions — a very different population from the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Family Income and Expenditure Survey, which several posters cited for the higher ¥6.35–8.31 million range among working-age couples. The two ministries measure different things, which is why the numbers in the thread look contradictory rather than simply wrong. On the US side, ¥13.5 million reflects median household income converted at roughly ¥159 to the dollar — a rate that reflects over a decade of Bank of Japan near-zero rates diverging from Fed tightening, not a sudden shift in real purchasing power.
The thread didn’t split over whether the yen is weak — everyone agreed on that — it split over whether a straight currency conversion means anything at all. One camp treated ¥13.5 million as a proxy for “Americans live better”; the other pointed to America’s roughly 30% tax-and-social-security burden versus Japan’s roughly 50%, arguing take-home reality narrows the gap considerably.
What’s largely absent from the thread is any adjustment for purchasing power parity, which would shrink the headline comparison substantially even before touching tax rates — nominal exchange-rate comparisons like this one systematically overstate real income gaps during periods of currency weakness. Also unmentioned: US median household income figures are pulled up by multi-earner households, including adult children living at home and contributing wages, a composition effect distinct from Japan’s aging, often single-earner or single-person households.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “US Median Household Income Is ¥13.5 Millionwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Japan’s Is ¥4.5 Million).”
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