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The story
A thread titled “Anyone here over 40, full-time, earning under ¥6 million a year, with 10+ years at the same company?” popped up on 5ch’s News VIP board. Many posters said they stick with their current jobs because of perks like no overtime, no forced relocations, and a short commute — but things turned into a debate over how to read the statistics, with one poster pointing out that only the top 30-40% of men actually earn over ¥6 million a year. One concrete example that came up: a project manager at a Tokyo IT company, 9 years in, making just ¥3.2 million a year — sparking discussion about how wages for the “lost generation” (those who entered the job market during Japan’s prolonged post-bubble downturn) have struggled to grow.
What people said
What's the job? Why are you still doing it?
To eat.
To get by.
For retirement.
And because I've got no energy left to job-hunt or try anything new.
I mean, most workers are probably in that boat tbh
Figured there'd be about three people like that
Guess there really aren't, huh
What job is it?
There's not even one here on 5ch, huh?
Well, only high-earning elites use 5ch anyway
But proper surveys are run by the government and private research firms
Of course people trust that data over some random guy on the internet
Yeah, exactly
And?
That's just talking about the average, you know
Bring it on.
Isn't that seriously too low though
Why stick around a place like that for 9 years?
Is that really a PM role?
You probably mean an on-site team lead dispatched to a client (客先常駐)
Even so, that salary is scarily low
Ah, so it's relative to your last job, got it
But honestly, I get the urge to just want an easy job even if the pay's below average, basically part-timer level
Well, at my first job I made ¥5 million in year one, then it crashed into the ¥2 million range from year two
Working 20+ hours a day with only 4 days off a year was the default there
So when I switched jobs, I genuinely didn't care about the pay cut — it was such a relief
The way your old job's pay dropped is just insane
You've been through it
Any chance your pay goes up from here at your current job?
Doesn't look like it
I re-entered the job market during the "ice age" (Japan's prolonged hiring freeze era), so I'm from a generation stuck on a low pay scale — getting squeezed from both the generation above and below me
Re: #74
Please do
That's rough
Might honestly be better to switch career tracks entirely — work part-time at Shimamura or My Basket (Japanese retail/convenience chains) while aiming for a full-time position
Background and key points of this discussion
Surveys from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the National Tax Agency put the average annual income in the ¥4 million range, but that figure is skewed upward by high earners — in reality, only about 30-40% of men earn more than ¥6 million a year. The thread’s debate centered on this gap between the “average” and what most people actually make: one camp argued that an income under ¥6 million is “normal” based on the average salary data, while the other countered that the average is only pulled up by a small slice of high earners. The thread also surfaced real accounts of stagnant wages among the so-called “lost generation” — those who job-hunted during Japan’s prolonged economic slump, when starting salaries and raise schedules were set low and never really caught up. The point readers often miss is that “average income” and the income of the “majority” aren’t the same thing — in practice, full-time employees earning ¥6 million or less are likely the majority.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News VIP) thread “Is anyone on this board over 40, full-time, earning ¥6 million or less, with 10+ years at the company?“
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