Career in Japan
Feb 28, 2017, 1:55 am
#31
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: TYO / WAS / NYC
Programs: American Express got a hit man lookin' for me
Posts: 4,596
Google "japan salary survey" and you can find tons of data compiled by recruiting firms telling you what people make in different career tracks based on seniority and other factors. The Hays survey (link) is the most in-depth that I have seen.
Some of the averages are misleading because there is HUGE variance. Weekly Diamond did an in-depth piece on the lawyer market in Japan last week: at the five biggest firms in Japan, newly-minted junior associates make 9-12 million a year, and 10 years in will make anywhere from 15 to 40 million. Once you have equity, the sky is the limit and you can get into the 50-100 million range. On the other hand, associates at smaller firms may make anywhere from 3.6 to 7 million, and at least half of corporate in-house lawyers are in the same range. If you go to work for the government as a prosecutor, you start around 2.5 million and don't hit 6 million until you are about 10 years into the career track. Couple that with all the small-time divorce and traffic accident lawyers out there, and you can see where the 6-7 million average comes from.
In big Japanese companies, the general rule of thumb seems to be that rank-and-file employees are very lucky to break 10 million, while middle managers are usually in the 10-20 million range, and anything more than that requires you to be at senior executive level, or an extremely good salesperson, or in a particularly flush industry like finance. I remember seeing a few years ago that new graduates hired at Japanese megabanks were only making around 4 million in salary a year -- but they received housing and other benefits so the actual package was significantly more than that.
Some of the averages are misleading because there is HUGE variance. Weekly Diamond did an in-depth piece on the lawyer market in Japan last week: at the five biggest firms in Japan, newly-minted junior associates make 9-12 million a year, and 10 years in will make anywhere from 15 to 40 million. Once you have equity, the sky is the limit and you can get into the 50-100 million range. On the other hand, associates at smaller firms may make anywhere from 3.6 to 7 million, and at least half of corporate in-house lawyers are in the same range. If you go to work for the government as a prosecutor, you start around 2.5 million and don't hit 6 million until you are about 10 years into the career track. Couple that with all the small-time divorce and traffic accident lawyers out there, and you can see where the 6-7 million average comes from.
In big Japanese companies, the general rule of thumb seems to be that rank-and-file employees are very lucky to break 10 million, while middle managers are usually in the 10-20 million range, and anything more than that requires you to be at senior executive level, or an extremely good salesperson, or in a particularly flush industry like finance. I remember seeing a few years ago that new graduates hired at Japanese megabanks were only making around 4 million in salary a year -- but they received housing and other benefits so the actual package was significantly more than that.
Jul 26, 2017, 10:21 pm
#33
Moderator, All Nippon Airways and Japan
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: TYO
Programs: NH SFC (*G), JL JGP (OWE), AS MVP, WOH E, IHG SE
Posts: 3,908
Discussion related to the Japanese pension system has been moved into the existing thread here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/japan...-oblivion.html
Regards,
armagebedar
Japan forum moderator
Regards,
armagebedar
Japan forum moderator