As a JET, I make 3,600,000 yen before taxes (360 man in the local lingo).
Today I read a book in a conbini that layed out the average salary of many types of jobs. Let's compare (I tried to memorize the figures as best I could so I may be off by a bit, but as you can see I can hardly afford to be buying books on my salary).
Average teacher pay (junior high): 740 man. And they get bonuses. And they live with their parents, so life is practically free. Downside: No free time and you are basically a replacement parent.
Average cop: Something like 780 man I think it was. Not bad for bike wranglers.
Average talento: A mere 280 man. Crap. That is my secret dream job. And they work so hard it seems!
Average hostess: 450 man. Does it make up for the liver damage?
Average stripper: 470 man. Probably not worth the extra 20 man a year to go from entertaining guys as a hostess to entertaining guys. And I imagine you get stuck with a Nigerian boyfriend that always borrows your money. I'm just saying there were a lot of Nigerians working for the strip clubs in Roppongi; there's gotta be a lot of hardworking Nigerians with real jobs outside of that area.
Director: 280 man. No wonder Takashi Miike makes so many films.
Farmer: 420 man. Probably not enough, seeing as I have never met a farmer without a family.
Translator: 360 man. Crap, that is my not-secret dream job.
Ramen restauranteur: 450 man.
Soba restauranteur: 800 man. Who knew the kings of the noodle industry were soba dudes?
Public servant: 700 man. Ironically, one of the easiest jobs in town is the highest paying. You have to pass a test to get in though, and maybe know some people who know some people.
Tomorrow I promise to go out and double check the numbers and maybe add a couple more.
very interesting. I think there's a really big divide between the top and bottom earners for the jobs like talento/hostess/stripper though.
ReplyDeletePublic servants and cops can't/don't ever get fired either, which is annoying too. My family are all in the police force here, and they say proudly "we didn't have higher pay during the bubble era, but we didn't have any hardships when the economy went down either!"
Just from pay alone, I guess slow and steady wins the race. But obviously I've chosen to be a rabbit and make my money in spurts, even though it adds up to less in the end. I'm taking naps while the turtles make it to the end zone.
Given several years experience, a specialty of some sort (the more technical the better) and a good eye for clients, a >native English speaking< translator can command much more than 360 man a year. As a freelancer based in Europe translating patents, it was easy to make closer to 1,200 man (at 100 yen to 1 Swiss Franc), mostly from clients based in Japan.
ReplyDeleteThe trick with the 'average' salary is that it is the average for native Japanese speakers (including housewives who have decided to become translators because they learned so much English during their GW trip to Hawaii), and this skews the numbers downward.
Jr. High teachers make 780 man? I didn't know that before.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the name of the book?
ReplyDeleteDiamond magazine had an issue (maybe every year) that ranks 100 professions by average salary. If you can find the back issues at your local library it's worth a read.
ReplyDeleteTop are things like baseball player, lawyer, college professor, etc.
Botton were things like gardener.
If eikaiwa teacher were put in the list, it would've been around #97 if I remember, and plenty of non-skilled laborers get paid more (but then eiakiwa is non-skilled labor, too)
This is a response to "anonymous." Patent translators probably do make serious, serious money. There are a few customers at the hostess club who spend ridiculous money, and they work for companies that do patent stuff. And back in the bubble days, they apparently had mistresses and spent thousands a night at clubs and just burned through their earnings. I guess patent lawyers/translators are PIMPS!
ReplyDeleteOn translation: The maximum is probably around the JPY30mn mark for freelancers specializing in equity research. I've heard anecdotally that there are people who work in patents and earn more. I suspect that most people who do equity research average around the JPY20mn mark, though.
ReplyDeleteClay,
ReplyDeleteThere is one thing I think you missed. That is, these salaries are on scale according years in service. Our principals must REALLY be raking in the dough, but the incoming teachers are making BEANS for the first ten years or so!! (so, it kind of makes sense to live with mom and dad...but just kind of). Similarly, public service employees notoriously start with next to nothing. To put it on a relative scale, my CIR friend found out her co-worker was JUST NOW making the equivalent of her JET salary (including his bonuses) in his TENTH year of service.
You might even want to mention that the prescribed ALT work-week is officially 36 hours AND we basically NEVER work [unpaid] over time.
Nonetheless, your two posts are informative! THANKS for posting!