In this article, we give an overview of the average salary in Tokyo.
What is the average salary in Tokyo?
- The average annual salary in Tokyo for a full-time employee is ¥5,507,040 ($50,655).
- This works out to a monthly average of ¥458,920 ($5,044).
Why is the average salary in Tokyo higher than the national average?
- The average annual salary in Japan for a full-time employee is ¥ 4,339,116 ($39,961).
- This is a monthly average of ¥361,593 ($3,330)
- The average salary in Tokyo is about 27% higher than the national average.
- Tokyo ranks number one in average salary among Japan’s 47 prefectures.
- The main reasons for Tokyo’s leading position are 1) the high concentration of companies in the capital and 2) the concentration of industries that pay higher than average salaries.
Where are average salaries higher than the national average?
Five prefectures have average salaries higher than the national average:
- Tokyo
- Aichi
- Osaka
- Kanagawa
- Shiga
| Average Monthly Salary by Prefecture in Japan (2018) Source: Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare |
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|
Rank
|
Prefecture | Average Monthly Salary (JPY) |
Difference vs. National Average |
| All Japan | 361,593 | N/A | |
| 1 | Tokyo | 458,920 | 26.9% |
| 2 | Aichi | 393,155 | 8.7% |
| 3 | Osaka | 380,664 | 5.3% |
| 4 | Kanagawa | 372,140 | 2.9% |
| 5 | Shiga | 362,267 | 0.2% |
| 6 | Hiroshima | 357,044 | -1.3% |
| 7 | Tochigi | 356,075 | -1.5% |
| 8 | Okayama | 350,770 | -3.0% |
| 9 | Ibaraki | 349,238 | -3.4% |
| 10 | Ishikawa | 344,862 | -4.6% |
| 11 | Fukui | 344,788 | -4.6% |
| 12 | Fukuoka | 343,861 | -4.9% |
| 13 | Mie | 341,886 | -5.5% |
| 14 | Shizuoka | 340,847 | -5.7% |
| 15 | Nagano | 340,807 | -5.7% |
| 16 | Yamaguchi | 338,811 | -6.3% |
| 17 | Gunma | 337,348 | -6.7% |
| 18 | Toyama | 336,661 | -6.9% |
| 19 | Kyoto | 332,049 | -8.2% |
| 20 | Hyogo | 331,485 | -8.3% |
| 21 | Tokushima | 329,933 | -8.8% |
| 22 | Kagawa | 328,103 | -9.3% |
| 23 | Yamanashi | 327,638 | -9.4% |
| 24 | Fukushima | 326,084 | -9.8% |
| 25 | Gifu | 323,042 | -10.7% |
| 26 | Ehime | 322,165 | -10.9% |
| 27 | Kochi | 321,313 | -11.1% |
| 28 | Chiba | 318,346 | -12.0% |
| 29 | Oita | 316,584 | -12.4% |
| 30 | Kumamoto | 315,678 | -12.7% |
| 31 | Niigata | 315,548 | -12.7% |
| 32 | Miyagi | 315,453 | -12.8% |
| 33 | Tottori | 314,159 | -13.1% |
| 34 | Shimane | 313,725 | -13.2% |
| 35 | Wakayama | 309,987 | -14.3% |
| 36 | Yamagata | 306,152 | -15.3% |
| 37 | Saga | 304,464 | -15.8% |
| 38 | Nagasaki | 304,285 | -15.8% |
| 39 | Saitama | 300,332 | -16.9% |
| 40 | Nara | 298,363 | -17.5% |
| 41 | Miyazaki | 296,865 | -17.9% |
| 42 | Akita | 296,442 | -18.0% |
| 43 | Hokkaido | 295,020 | -18.4% |
| 44 | Iwate | 293,641 | -18.8% |
| 45 | Aomori | 281,820 | -22.1% |
| 46 | Okinawa | 280,554 | -22.4% |
| 47 | Kagoshima | 275,577 | -23.8% |
What are the averages by industry?
Of course, average salary varies by industry. The Top 10 best paying industries in Tokyo are:
- Finance and insurance
- Electricity, gas, heat supply, water
- Scientific research, professional and technical services
- Manufacturing
- Construction
- Information and communications
- Services (Overlapping industries)
- Transport and postal activities
- Real estate and goods rental and leasing
- Wholesale and retail trade
People working in finance and insurance earn an average monthly salary of ¥669,691 ($6,167).
What about bonuses?
The amounts above do not include semi- and annual bonuses, which can be a significant component of total salary in some industries. We will cover average bonuses in a follow up post.
What is average salary by gender?
The Ministry of Labor does not breakdown average salary for gender by prefecture. For reference, below is data from a private survey conducted by a recruiting company (DODA) in 2017.
Average annual salary increases by age group, but there is a significant gender gap across age groups. The average annual salary for a person in their twenties is ¥3,540,000 ($32,182). The average salary for a 20-something man is ¥3,740,000 ($34,000), while the average salary for a 20-something woman is ¥500,000 less, at ¥3,240,000 ($29,455).
Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare survey data, 2018 (in Japanese)
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