source: wikipedia

Annual salary for new graduates in general

The previous blog post shows the list work fields and number of foreign residents in the field focusing on the specific fields that accepts foreign new college graduates diligently such as education, information technology, and academia and special professions. I did not go into details one of the most important things for the employment; “SALARY“.

On this blog post, I will show a list of companies’ monthly salaries for new graduates and  brief employment systems in Japan such as welfare and insurances.

The average of annual new graduates salary is said to be around ￥2000000 – ￥2300000 ($20k – 23k) and monthly salary is around ￥190000 ($1900) in 2013. This annual salary includes a year end bonus and without tax and insurances.

Before go through a ranking of companies and welfare, let me introduce the insurance system in Japan. All Japanese companies are required to join a insurance program so called “social insurance” 社会保険/shakai hoken/ which includes health insurance, workmen’s compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, and welfare annuity insurance. Social insurance is mandatory for all the companies including foreign capital companies in Japan. The annual and monthly salaries in this post DON’T include tax and the social insurance.

Your net income is

your monthly net income =  YOUR MONTHLY SALARY – (Tax and the insurances).

Tax and insurances depend on where you live and work and your annual salary, but roughly speaking, it is around $300 – $500.

I will explain the insurance and tax for more details in a future post.

The list below shows the ranking of Japanese companies which offers high annual new graduates salary in Japan (again this numbers are without tax and insurances).

Ranking of Japanese companies’ monthly salaries for new graduates

source: http://rank.in.coocan.jp/salary-shoninkyu.html

Unfortunately, this ranking is old and some companies do not exist today.
The average of monthly salary for new graduates($1900) in Japan seems quite low, but this does not include the year-end bonuses and just an average. Many companies provide bonus twice(summer and winter) which is usually same as or twice your monthly salary. Today, there are lots of companies offers much higher salaries for new graduates such as consulting agencies, smart phone game companies and advertisement agencies. Negative part is that negotiation of salary is not common among new graduates in Japan, which is a bad custom of Japanese traditional companies. Many Japanese companies hire new graduates as “generalists” and no matter what skills they have, these companies regard new graduates as “new to the society”. Special skill sets are often neglected in recruitment processes, but companies are looking at your potentials. I believe this causes the Gakureki-shakai (companies values the academic career of an individuals more than his actual abilities). If you are highly skilled in specific work field, many Japanese traditional companies do not offer you jobs or positions that require the specific skills unless you are assigned to research department in the company.

Welfare and Tax

Another important thing is welfare and benefits that companies provide. There is no standard for this, but I will show few examples.

Transportation expenses

This is very common in Japan. Some companies in Tokyo, they offers “3 station benefits” which they provide $200-300 rent for the employees who live within the 3 stations from the company.

retirement allowance

Many companies offer this benefit.

Housing aid

This is not very common, but some companies offers $200-$300 for every employees. What a nice company. However, these companies salaries are usually below the average.

Leisure home

This is not very common, but some companies own leisure homes in report spots such as Yamanakako, Izu, Kamakura, and Kyoto.
The welfare and benefit often included in social insurance. Some insurance company or unions support entertainments such as leisure homes in those resort spots, restaurants, and sports facilities(Gym) fees.
Some Japanese companies offers very unique welfare and benefits such as “dating aid” and “free Kigurumi (cartoon costumes)”, but I am not going into detail here.

If you are looking for a job in Japan, you need to keep in mind the average of salaries in the work field, year-end bonus, welfare and insurance that the company offers. Salary issues are very sensitive in Japanese companies, but if you work hard, output results, and passionate to work at the company, promotions will take care of itself. Lastly, please avoid companies that called “Black companies” even though you are passionated to work in Japan. About Black companies, please go to  my previous blog post about black companies in Japan.

If you are looking for more jobs, sign up Rikunabi which is a biggest portal site for new graduates recruitment in Japan.

When you imagine Summer tradition in Japan, you might imagine summer festivals, fireworks, and Bon festivals which represents Japanese summer time traditions. These festivals are well known as a part of Japanese traditions. However, there is a little know Japanese summer tradition.

It is called “Koshien (甲子園)” which is the Japan national High School baseball tournament. The “Koshien” itself is the baseball stadium located in Osaka where Hanshin Tigers‘ home ground. The high school baseball tournament is held every summer at this stadium.

The tournament started in 1915 and since 1924 (10th) Koshien stadium has been used.
Currently, the tournament is consists of 49 high schools which win the regional elimination rounds in 47 prefectures (都道府県/todofuken/), except Tokyo and Hokkaido. Tokyo is divided into West Tokyo and East Tokyo, and Hokkaido into North and South.The final game reaches average 20% TV program rating in Japan. It is usually higher than NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) games.

Why Japanese people are so exited to the high school baseball games?
There might be a power of media, but I believe many people expect “drama” behind the games. High school students put all their efforts for the tournament for 3 years of their high school life.
Moreover, this tournament is prefecture representative matches, people cheer their home prefecture representatives. There are distinguished high schools in every prefecture, and highly skilled players often leave their hometown for these schools. Many Japanese MLB players are from these schools, and they were star player in the tournament. “Koshien” is also a stope of future star players. Talent scouts from Pro teams keep their eyes on every games, and outstanding plays and individual scores in the “Koshien” provide great opportunities to the high school players into professional leagues.

Ouendan (応援団) “Cheer parties”
Another enjoyment of Koshien is “Cheering squad”. Every school which has baseball club also has cheering squads. Usually, every one of students in representative schools (over 1000 students) go to the tournament as cheer squad as in the pictures.

The second picture is the classic style of “Ouendan” wearing “Gakuran (classic male school uniform)”. Female Ouendan wears also male uniforms often or “Hakama” as picture below.

source: http://www.asahi.com/koshien/91/photo/2009072220.html

In distinguished high schools, there is a initiation “cheering practice” for the freshmen which practice “school songs” and “cheer songs”. Freshmen go to the every regional elimination rounds to cheer their schools.

If you are in Japan during summer and into baseball games, you would enjoy the “Koshien”.