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The story
According to the National Tax Agency’s Statistical Survey of Private Sector Salaries, the average salary for 2025 came to ¥4,866,000 (up 1.9% year-on-year, an increase of ¥91,000), marking a record high for the fifth consecutive year. By industry, the electricity, gas, heat supply, and water sectors stood out with notably high pay levels. On 5channel threads, commenters repeatedly pointed out that this figure is an overall average including part-timers and temp workers, with many arguing that “the median, not the mean, should be used” to reflect reality — noting that the average for regular full-time employees alone is ¥5.59 million, and for male regular employees it tops ¥6 million.
The average annual salary last year for employees at private companies hit a record high of roughly ¥4.87 million, marking five straight years of increases.
According to the National Tax Agency, the average salary last year for company employees and part-timers rose ¥91,000 from the previous year to ¥4,866,000 (up 1.9% year-on-year) — the fifth consecutive year of growth.
It’s the highest figure since the survey began, likely reflecting the impact of wage hikes.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Let's convert that to dollars…
Exactly $30,000, huh
That's a fifth of what a part-timer makes over there
Rough.
Re: #50
What are you even saying, ignoring cost of living? lol
Yeah, the type that's got infrastructure locked down.
Basically, when energy prices go up, they just pass it straight onto customer rates
(with a bit of a time lag)
because they can.
Doesn't apply to us at the small-fry bottom
Guess we'll keep working weekends for peanuts.
A "large company" just means big in size
A "major company" means high status or name recognition
Even among large companies, the ones that barely qualify pay about the same as a small-to-mid-sized firm.
Swap this for your average small-to-mid-sized company and it'd instantly drop to less than half.
Half? That's basically part-timer pay.
No way it drops that much (lol)
This is the average for private companies, so if we're being real — some of them probably over-report their numbers out of fear of getting raided by the Labor Standards Office, the Tax Agency, or the Pension Office…
Even out in the Kanto countryside, most My Basket (a convenience store chain) jobs pay at least ¥1,330/hour, so working that schedule gets you ¥4.79 million a year — way more than enough
You could even max out ¥100,000 a month into NISA (Japan's tax-free investment account) on that.
A handful of high earners are just dragging the number up — it's nowhere close to reality.
You're literally the one dragging the average down, so maybe sit this one out.
If you're a full-time employee earning less than that, REALLY think hard about whether that's okay!!
Seriously, this
Makes you wonder what people earning less than that are even thinking while they work.
It literally says part-timers are included
If you're a full-time employee not even clearing ¥4.68 million and still posting stuff like that, seriously go change jobs or demand a raise.
Breaking it down by gender: men's average rose ¥100,000 from last year to ¥5,967,000, while women's rose ¥86,000 to ¥3,418,000.
So if you're just talking about male salarymen, it might actually be over ¥6 million.
Fields women can easily break into tend to see wages drop
Infrastructure-related blue-collar work is probably one of the last sanctuaries left for men.
Oh, so now job listing sites are the standard for "average"!?
It also includes part-timers and temp workers who got paid for a full year, though.
Like every single time, stop reporting this as an average
Report the median instead.
You need to look at the rate of change broken down by income bracket and industry.
You're the reason both the average AND the median are lower, aren't you
So don't go lecturing anyone.
Even temp workers were pulling in ¥400,000 a month back then.
But temp workers don't get bonuses, right?
Median annual income for men by age bracket (per doda survey)
• 20s: ¥3.7 million
• 30s: ¥4.8 million
• 40s: ¥5.5 million
• 50s and up: ¥6 million
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Just give us the average for full-time employees only.
It's right there
Full-time employees: ¥5.59 million
Non-regular: ¥2.10 million
Male full-time employees are over ¥6 million.
Looks like Re: #145 just hit you with even more reality~
You doing okay~?
Background and Key Points of This Topic
The National Tax Agency’s “Statistical Survey of Private Sector Salaries” covers salaried workers employed throughout the year, and is calculated including not just full-time regular employees but part-timers and temp workers too. This year’s ¥4,866,000 figure is likewise an overall average — for regular employees alone it’s ¥5.59 million, and for male regular employees it tops ¥6 million. The debate raised in the thread over “which is closer to reality, the average or the median” comes down to a statistical quirk: the more income distribution skews toward the top, the higher the average tends to run, so the view that the median feels closer to lived experience has real statistical merit. Meanwhile, the reason the electricity, gas, heat supply, and water sectors post such high figures appears to be rooted in regionally monopolistic business structures and how easily they can pass costs on to customers — a point the original article doesn’t mention, even though it means the numbers can’t be chalked up to wage-raising effort alone.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5channel (News Express+) thread “Average Private-Sector Salary Hits Record ¥4.87 Million, Up for 5th Straight Year — Highest by Industry: “Electricity, Gas, Heat Supply, and Water,” Says National Tax Agency.”
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