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The story
According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s 2025 Survey on the Employment Conditions of Foreigners, released on August 31, the average monthly salary (base pay plus overtime) for foreign nationals working full-time came to ¥292,400 — up ¥17,500, or 6.4%, from the previous year. The survey covered 9,016 workplaces employing foreign workers, conducted in October–November 2025, with 3,919 workplaces responding. While the results reflect improving conditions amid Japan’s labor shortage, threads on 5channel lit up with comments like “Japanese workers at the bottom only make ¥200,000” and “why not just hire Japanese people?”, sparking debate over comparisons with low-wage domestic labor and the industries that have come to rely on foreign workers.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s 2025 Survey on the Employment Conditions of Foreigners, released August 31, found that foreign nationals working as regular full-time employees earned an average monthly salary of about ¥290,000. That’s up 6.4% from the previous year, with treatment of foreign workers improving amid the ongoing labor shortage.
The survey was conducted in October–November 2025, targeting a random sample of 9,016 workplaces with five or more employees enrolled in employment insurance that employ foreign workers. 3,919 workplaces responded.
Monthly pay, including base salary and overtime, averaged ¥292,400, up ¥17,500 from the previous year. Working hours averaged 158.7 hours, with 17.6 hours of overtime.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
In Okinawa that'd make you a high earner
Plenty of people out there taking home just ¥150,000 after taxes
But slaves who aren't business owners wouldn't understand that
An owner whose company goes under from a labor shortage will end up back in the workforce as an employee, won't he.
Hikikomori (shut-ins), get a job.
You'll hire them? If it's remote-work-first and you'll take anyone,
you'll get an insane number of applicants
Just keep going at it forever, you two. Like a stick of Kintaro candy (same pattern no matter where you cut it).
I kind of feel like if you work, you've already lost
What exactly have you been doing for 26 years?
Apparently they should just go under, is the idea. Lately all I see is stuff like 'better to fold than bring in foreigners' or 'AI will make foreigners unnecessary' — from NEETs, I guess.
But it's exactly because Japanese people won't work in construction, civil engineering, trucking, caregiving, factories, farming, or fishing that this happens.
With 26 years you could've passed the bar exam or the CPA exam, or even gotten into med school and become a doctor.
Even 100 years of studying wouldn't be enough for him lol
No way. ¥290,000 is actually cheap.
Take-home pay is even lower than that.
For a rural job listing, that's upper-middle-class territory
It's because Japanese people don't apply for these '3K' jobs (kitsui/kitanai/kiken — tough, dirty, dangerous) lol
>By industry, manufacturing had 610,000 workers, services 330,000, wholesale/retail 230,000, and medical/welfare 140,000.
Nobody's volunteering for physical labor or dirty work lol
Re: #78
There wasn't any motivation to begin with lol. Don't go blaming other people for it lol
Convenience stores and restaurants, which fall into the former, just want cheap labor,
so it would be better to strictly limit their hiring of foreign workers and instead boost labor mobility toward other industries.
Convenience stores can't use the Specified Skilled Worker or Technical Intern Training visa categories,
so that's not really relevant.
Restaurants, on the other hand, already can't survive without foreign workers —
they're becoming almost all-foreign staff at this point.
Manufacturing had 610,000 workers, services 330,000, wholesale/retail 230,000, and medical/welfare 140,000.
Do they really get paid this much though?
Even converting to an hourly wage in Tokyo, it seems questionable.
Construction, sure, but I can't imagine factory work at a manufacturer paying that well.
If it really pays that much, then the part-time middle-aged women working there should be earning about the same, which doesn't add up.
Maybe it's mostly night shifts?
Manufacturing and medical/welfare come with night-shift overtime,
services have late-night shift rotations,
wholesale/retail includes logistics and installation work
For that kind of work, even Japanese workers would make around ¥300,000 a month.
My job has weekends and holidays off, day shifts only, no overtime, no quotas, so I only make around ¥250,000.
— though the toughness level would be on a whole different scale
Convenience store bento factories are apparently mostly foreign workers now too,
but it doesn't seem like especially heavy labor?
＿
– The "foreign national recruitment homepage" of Musashino Group Co., Ltd., which manufactures 7-Eleven bento boxes
https://job-gear.net/msholdings/
"We know people working in Japan for the first time have a lot of worries.
But don't worry.
People from many different countries work at our factory.
There's sure to be someone from your own country here too, so if you're interested, please apply first.
Our full-time foreign staff will carefully teach you the job from scratch, and we have notices posted in foreign languages too. If any trouble comes up, we'll support you, so don't worry.
Getting to work with Japan's food industry, renowned as some of the safest in the world, is sure to teach you a lot too.
We'd love it if you can work 4–5 days a week, but starting at around 2 days a week is fine too.
If you find it 'interesting' or want to do more, you can always increase your work days."
https://job-gear.net/m/ms/msholdings/images/index_main_img01.jpg
You really could say that
Interviewer: 'In that case, we'll just hire a foreign worker instead. Goodbye.'
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
It’s worth noting that this figure isn’t an average across all industries — the survey is limited to “workplaces that employ foreign workers.” The sample skews toward industries already facing severe labor shortages, such as manufacturing, services, wholesale/retail, and medical/welfare, and conditions involving night shifts and overtime may be pushing the monthly figure upward. Comments in the thread ranged from surprise that this is “higher than what Japanese workers at the bottom make” to claims that it’s “actually a reasonable level for rural areas or certain job types,” with many pointing out that a single national average doesn’t match their lived experience. Notably, the discussion centered less on improving conditions for foreign workers themselves and more on comparisons with domestic low-wage workers and the treatment of Japan’s Employment Ice Age Generation.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (News Speed+) thread “[Foreign Workers’ Monthly Pay] ¥290,000, up 6.4% from last year — Labor shortage cited as reason 〈Labor Ministry Survey〉“
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