What's new

working in japan

georgeb

後輩
15 Aug 2002
8
0
11
A question for all the people working in Japan.
Can anyone give me a rough estimate of how much I will lose in stoppages from salary in Japan? For example if I earn 8,000,000 yen gross, how much can I actually expect to take home?
 
Hi George, welcome to the board!

Just wait till Moyashi, Maciamo or some other of our J-residents drop by, I'm sure they can assist you.
 
possibly around 10% but the amount your talking it might go a bit more.

Is this a 1 off job or a year thing? If a year thing you got possibly other month deductions.
 
Thanks for the reply.
The job in question is a one year posting from my company in Europe.
 
hmm ... can your accounting staff help out?

There might be some differences since your salary might not be based in Japan but rather from your home company in Europe.
 
Depends on where you stay, what you eat (if you cook yourself or eat out) and how much money you spend on leisures, clothes, etc. 8 millions yen is a very good salary, even for Tokyo. Language teachers (a big portion of the Westerners working in Japan) usually get 3 millions a year. Still, some can save up to half of their salary. The cheapest accommodation you'll get is about 50.000yen/month in a gaijin house or weekly mansion. I think it's more reasonable to count on 100.000/month + food and extras. I spend about 30000yen/month on food. So I think you'd be able to go back home with roughly 6 millions yen on 8 if you are careful without being stingy. Not bad at all. ;)
 
Georgeb, don't tell me your company is SAP ? That's the only German company I know quite well in Tokyo - but we never know as it is recruiting all the time and the staff tends to move a lot there.
 
Thanks for the info, now I have something to work on.
I'll be bringing my wife so she will amuse herself spending the extra 6million!
No, I work for a much smaller company than SAP which means they don't have much of an idea for sending people overseas.
Again, thanks for the help.
 
If you need anyone to show you round...
You're paying by the way. 8,000,000? I gotta get a proper job...
 
grza, that's yen ... so drop 2 digits. Still around US $78,000 isn't too shabby. I think I'll join you in the proper job search ;)
 
okay guys (girls), don't get excited i haven't got the cash yet. if it's way above norm then it's unlikely i will get it either.
i was just after some ideas on how much i should be aiming for. anyway, seeing as i'm here, it looks like i'll be in a place called Mito(?), does anybody know the place?
 
It's located in Ibaraki Prefecture

=> http://www.japanreference.com/cgi-bin/jump.cgi?ID=2074 (J/E)

Related links:

http://www.japanreference.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?bool=and&query=mito (disregard the Sumitomo links)
 
Too right.

Anyway, the dollar signs ringing up in my eyes made me miss the part of the thread about the original poster going to Mito: the first time I went to Japan, I worked in Mito for half the week, so I know it as much as any other place in Japan.

It's a pretty small-medium standard Japanese town. There's a small gaijin bar called New York Station (I always assumed after that Velvet Underground song) near the station, which I liked sometimes but which is obviously subject to its fair share of dickheads. The bar I went to most was called "Orange People", nothing special but notable for its "Go-Go Dutchman's Bowl" menu option. For some reason, I remember that as featuring sausages and pineapple...that can't be right...

Do you know where you'll be living? Is it in Mito or one of the nearby stations.?

There is a perfect express train (Fresh Hitachi/Super Hitachi, one of which stops less than the other, can't remember which) into Ueno station in northern Tokyo, which takes about an hour. However, the non-express train is very, very bad, by Japanese standards anyway—the Jouban line. Definitely the oldest trains of any line I've seen in Japan (I suppose there are worse, undersubscribed, ones in the countryside like those ones you see on late night NHK clips which still have coal-burning fires to heat them) and the only one I've known to stop because of rain.

I can highly recommend the kitsune soba you can buy on the platform at Mito station.

OK, I have to stop writing now, I've been overcome by an attack of natsukashii..... 梅干し食いてーべ!
 
That would be a lot of information for half a week!

I said half the week!

I was there for about a year altogether.
 
Brilliant thanks, I also thought you had an action packed half a week.
Where are you living these days?
 
Wow, I'm gonna have to brush up on my English...

Now I'm living in the (very) outskirts of Tokyo.

I think Mito is a pretty good place to live, though (if you can afford to avoid using the slow trains for long journeys).
Mito is in Ibaraki prefecture, as someone posted earlier on. For some reason, Japanese people usually laugh when I tell them I lived in Ibaraki when I first came here....don't let that put you off though.
 
Back
Top Bottom