How much do translators get paid

I'm curious as to how much translators in Japan get paid. I did a search on Google and it said the average salary for a Japanese translator is $40,000 USD, but that only included people living in the United States.

What's the average salary for a translator living and working in Japan? I realize there will be a big spectrum depending on what part of the country you're in, and also whether you're a contractor or working for one company directly, but I'm interested to see how the salary compares to other professions. Thank you in advance.

There's many factors that play into translator compensation.

Are you talking about J-E or E-J?
In-house translator positions advertise for salaries ranging from 1500 yen/hour to 3-5 million yen/year.

Salaries for freelancers is all over the board and depends so much on specialty, experience, and whether or not you do your own sales promotion, it's difficult to put up a useful number.
That said, freelancers can make anywhere from 3 million to 10 million yen a year. Some make less or more.

If you want to work as a translator, how much can you make is way down on a long list of questions you have to answer.

Assuming you do mean "translation" and not "interpretation," as suggested, I think it has little to do with what part of Japan you live in but more to do with what field of translation you do and what languages you are better at.

Either way, USD 40000 a year sounds like a fair amount even in Japan, considering that it's not the "majority" but the "average" and that it doesn't necessarily mean "by translations alone."

If you're interesting in doing professional work, the following website might be useful.

http://www.gally.net/translation/gettingstarted.htm

Thank you very much for the responses. I was referring to J-E translations, really.

And thank you for the link, Uco. It looks to be quite informative.