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The story
A survey showing that 6.2% of salaried workers — roughly 1 in 16 — earn more than ¥10 million a year was featured on 5ch’s News Speed+ board. Looked at by household income instead, the share rises to 13.8%, or about 1 in 7 households. Thread comments pushed back on how to read the statistics, with some saying “that’s way lower than it feels” and others noting that “in reality, the ¥10-million-plus bracket is concentrated in big cities and large companies — they’re not evenly spread across ordinary workplaces.” Opinion also split on just how hard ¥10 million is to reach, with some saying “you’ll get there with normal effort” and others countering “it’s not that easy.”
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[Annual Income ¥10 Million] 1 in 16 Salaried Workers
First, let’s check how many people individually earn more than ¥10 million a year in salary.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
The yen's just turned into scrap paper — today's ¥10 million is probably worth about what ¥6 million was 30 years ago.
0 × ¥10 million is still 0, you know? (jab implying the previous poster earns nothing)
It's not like you're some high school dropout or something
Everyone on 5ch makes ¥10 million-plus, obviously
What's the trick here?
Feels like there's some sleight of hand in how they define "salaried worker."
You're just living at the bottom of society — out in the real world, people clearing ¥10 million aren't rare at all.
Every single house in my subdivision is definitely over ¥10 million.
Rough being from a poor country.
But prices there are more than 3x higher too.
In reality, people earning ¥10 million are clustered together, so
someone on ¥4 million and someone on ¥10 million aren't working on the same floor.
What a sloppy article, honestly.
If anything it's concentrated in cities over rural areas, and even within cities, concentrated at big corporations.
Nah, it actually happens.
At big companies that use staffing agencies, the income gap within the same floor can be huge.
That's not calculated from listed-company average wages though.
If you're gonna say it's not from that, then show the data and say so.
If you want a source, back up your own claim first.
If you don't know, just Google the National Personnel Authority — it comes up instantly. Go check how many employees the surveyed workplaces have.
I'm the one saying "from listed companies," and you're the one saying "it's not," right?
Anyone can just say "it's not" —
that's all talk.
How many employees minimum? At least a few thousand, right?
Here you go.
Even a kid can pull up public government info — do your homework before criticizing, it's embarrassing.
You don't seem capable of reading primary sources, so I'll link something easy to understand instead.
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/20250325-OYT1T50020/
Links could have viruses, so can you just type it out instead?
I'm not that nice — Google it yourself.
The government's data gets manipulated all the time, you know.
Can't be trusted.
Do you actually trust it?
How many times has data been falsified so far?
Say an acquaintance of yours committed theft.
No matter how many years pass, people would still say "that guy's a thief."
Even if they don't say it out loud, they wouldn't trust him again.
That's the same idea.
LOL.
You're the one who demanded data, and now you won't be satisfied unless I psychically guess which data source you'll approve of?
How many times has the government falsified data?
Dunno.
Do you know the answer?
For example —
say you committed theft once.
Would the people around you trust you afterward?
Seriously don't get it.
If you don't get that, you don't understand human nature — guess we can't have a deep conversation.
Even blue-collar work like construction can easily clear ¥10 million these days.
Depends on your effort.
That's a lie.
since I get to spend every yen I make, I'm slowly getting bored of spending.
So you're not even allowed to get involved in your family's business — that's a pretty sad position to be in.
Background and Key Points
The original article appears to be based on individual salaried-worker figures drawn from the National Tax Agency’s “Statistical Survey of Actual Status for Salary in the Private Sector” or similar data. The 6.2% (1 in 16) figure is purely a ratio among salaried workers as a whole, and differs in both population and methodology from the 13.8% (1 in 7 households) figure calculated on a household basis. Household income tends to come out higher because it combines multiple earners’ income, such as dual-income couples. The thread split mainly over two points: first, surprise that the real number is “way lower than it feels,” alongside the observation that salaried workers earning over ¥10 million are concentrated in big cities and large companies (in reality they’re not evenly distributed across workplaces or regions — there’s significant skew by industry and company size). Second, opinion clashed over just how hard ¥10 million is to reach, with views split between “you’ll get there with normal effort” and “that’s not realistic,” depending on education and occupation. It’s also worth noting that the article’s own analogy — “1 out of every 16 people on the same floor” — is itself a bit misleading once you account for how unevenly that income bracket is actually distributed.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “[Annual Income ¥10 Million] 6.2% of salaried workers, or 1 in 16. By household income it’s 13.8%, or 1 in 7 households.“
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