Japan University graduate starting salaries?

What are starting salaries like for a Japanese person graduating from a liberal arts school like Waseda / Keio / Sophia?

I asked some of my Japanese friends Waseda who finished job hunting (they are in 4th year) and their starting salaries are 200,000 – 250,000 per month (not including yearly bonuses). Is this number accurate? If they work 8 hours a day, is this basically not minimum wage?

On average how fast does salary increase? For example how long would it take to go from 200,000 a month to 400,000 a month?

I am in no position to state any facts when I am not working there in the first place.

Although unrelated to the topic, if you seem to pass Japanese Rule of 7 blog, for sure you'll have any idea of what it's like to be a gaijin living there. The blog is almost satirical but as the saying goes, the truth hurts. Go check it out so you'll have idea about this topic.

There are also topics if you check in google but perhaps unreliable. Again, go check it out.

You will also receive various data if ever there will be feedback in your post, especially for the expats living there already.

Take something with a pinch of salt.

Although it depends on the company, your friends are basically correct. Graduating from Keio, Waseda or other prestigious universities can give you a boost against other candidates looking for jobs at popular companies, but won't make any difference in your starting salary.

As for salary increases, it depends. If you join a very traditional Japanese company your salary will increase very slowly, but steadily, and according to the tabs they have established. They are mostly based on seniority and the biggest rises will come when the company predicts you'll have key life events, such as getting married, having children, sending them to university, etc. So basically, unless you climb the corporate ladder to a managerial or executive position, you'll only make enough to cover your needs at that given time and to have a decent life, but usually not much to splurge (unless you're "lucky" to stay at your parent's until 35-ish and save on rent). In the old days you would get lifetime employment guaranteed, but that's becoming less and less prevalent.

To answer your question directly, I know as a reference that for an engineer it takes about 10 - 12 years at the same company to reach 400,000 a month w/o bonus included. Liberal art careers don't get payed as well (with a few exceptions) so it might take longer.

In Japan is not as common yet, but if you're willing to hop jobs rather than staying at a company forever, you might be able to reduce this time by a 30-40%.

I know this is probably not what you wanted to hear, but it's the cold truth in Japan.

People here in Japan often jokingly call this country an "ideal socialism country".

But 200,000 – 250,000 per month with bonus is not that bad, especially if you're just spending the money for yourself, or a couple each spending for yourselves. And for this reason, people focus greatly on their bonuses as well as their company's welfare programs, and actually as well as overwork pay. The custom of living with parents helps too.

The Japanese work environment doesn't typically make it easy for you to take long vacations as long as a week, so you won't be spending much anyway. But I used to go on gorgeous holidays for free when I was making less than 200,000 for a travel company.

No first hand experience but I've read others state that Japanese salarymen usually make most of their career earnings in their last decade or so of work. Basically you get paid enough to live off of for a while, and then are rewarded with retirement funds towards the end.

Incidentally, Japan tends to have a pretty low Gini coefficient. So the differences are going to be somewhat limited anyway.

There are annual surveys with results published. When I looked last time for a four-year masters degree it was still in the 250k range and that included sciences and engineering.

And, 250k isn't that much after deductions for social security etc. although most of the population manages to survive on salaries around that level.

If you want to earn better money, head to a country that values ability rather than longevity. My daughter stated her first job on much better money than that after graduating.

Looking at all the responses, makes me wonder how the japanese can afford so many designer brands.

Looking at all the responses, makes me wonder how the japanese can afford so many designer brands.

Yeah, like I said, it's not difficult, especially if you aren't sending your kids to private boarding schools that are rarely seen, not buying houses with big dog yards that hardly exist in the city, and not taking month long vacations with the whole family which is almost impossible if you're making big money.

But back to the original question, there are indeed professions such as athletes, doctors, mass media work, IT work and financial work that allow you to make that 400,000/month sooner and easier than people doing other jobs. In the 80s, a lot of those people used to get bonuses worth 6 times their monthly basic salary while in their twenties. Now the economy isn't as good, although housing has become slightly more affordable.

Looking at all the responses, makes me wonder how the japanese can afford so many designer brands.

Simple: lower prices, and lower cost of living in general. Weren't you aware that Japan has been stuck in deflation for 20+ years?

ami - Well, coming from America I'd say your average Japanese person has much less to pay for. College is way more affordable, health care costs are well under control, day care is heavily subsidized, etc. etc. You have to try much harder to get into ridiculous debt in Japan.

The first time I arrived to Tokyo I was also amazed at how much they spent to dress fashionably and thought that everyone was surely rich. But then I observed and realized that most new graduates and young workers don't really have the habit of budgeting and saving for their future and are spending their entire paychecks on these things. Then, with such spending habits, it is entirely possible to buy designer brands with an entry level salary, even more so if they still live with the parents and don't pay a penny for rent. Of course, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're spending it wisely, but that's a very personal opinion.