How Japanese workers survive on $22,000 per year

31 Comments

  1. I have Japanese friends in college. Other than those that got married here, they all left and returned to Japan saying life in Japan is easier than in the US.

  2. 22k USD is around 21 lakhs rupees enough to live a good life
    nothing luxury stuff but a very good stranded compared to majority of citizen

  3. They survive cause currently the working class can still pay for that but with he problem of aging population and Japeneses hard anti immigration policies.
    Might saw a collapse of this system in few decades.

  4. Visiting Japan now. The place is sad. Forced smiles by societal norms can't hide their true feelings. I can feel these people's depression and despair. Working 16 hours per day for beans, expected to smile throught it all, and having no time or money to create a family. Its like watching 50 million zombies grinding until they die.

  5. Didn't really dig into how those people are living. Subsidized healthcare doesn't matter much to someone in their 20s.

  6. I live in Puerto Rico, U.S Territory. Our median is the same as Japan… At median, it truly feels unaffordable here unless you're on dual-income

  7. This is what we have to look forward to in the US if we let companies keep trampling over our rights. Except we aren’t Japan so there will be no universal healthcare, no affordable housing, no cheap healthy food, no clean streets and no culture of respect.

    Just a bunch of poor and sick Americans packed in like sardines while our boss and landlords play at being petty gods.

  8. Where I lived in Japan most people were making about 6.50 in today's dollars. Even the skilled jobs like Engineers were making next to nothing. 10 years ago they were making about 10 dollars which was before the yen was devalued. Combine this with a toxic work environments that make America blush. If your stuck in Japan you can make it work, but if you ever want to leave the country and remigrate your totally screwed and starting over from scratch. How do Japanese not realize they are descending into Thailand with a tourist based economy is beyond me.

  9. You know what Japan needs, millions of foreigners to do the jobs that gives a livelihood to 40% of the work force.
    That sounds like a good idea, it would aldo keep the wages even lower.

  10. I live in Japan. It IS bad for us, especially in the major cities. Tokyo is not affordable, even compared to our wages. People are struggling, no one can go on holiday, people can't afford kids, rent is too high compared to income, and everyone is overworked and pushed to the brink. Please don't present these kind of things and say "it's not so bad". IT IS BAD. People are hurting here.

  11. This is a misrepresentation of how things are. Things ARE expensive when you apply wage difference adjustments. Recently the decades long stagnation has started to go away. Inflation is hitting. Prices are rising while wages are not. They are raising interest rates for the first time in years.

    Surviving does not mean doing well.

  12. 少し悲観的な雰囲気の解説をしてるけど少し誇張されて騒がれてると思う。
    そこまで悲観して騒ぐことではない。
    確かに日本の平均収入は30年間で50万円ほどしか増えておらず少ししか収入が増えていない、さらに通貨価値の下落の影響で外国人から見ると日本人の収入は減っているように見えるが円です換算すると少しずつ増えている。
    中間層の収入は350万円ほどだけど、平均収入は500万円ほどだし貧富の差が少なくて、貧富の差は以前よりかは拡大はしているが現在でも世界でも極めて貧富の差は少ない。
    物価なども上昇はしているが元々が極端なデフレでデフレーションから脱却するためにインフレーションを望んでいたのでそこまで悪いことではない、問題は想定よりもインフレーションが早く進んでしまっている問題です。

    つまりアメリカなどで生活をしようとすると極端に収入が少なく感じるかもしれないが、日本で暮らす分にはそこまで窮屈には感じないということです。

    1番の問題は物価が上昇しているのに給料が少ししか増えなくて自国通貨価値が低下するので輸入品が多い日本ではインフレーションがさらに加速して少子高齢化社会なので社会福祉の負担は若者がさらに負担して、足りない税金は国が国債を発行するということです。
    金利などをあげると国債を返済する額が増えることもありなかなか利上げをおこないずらいです。

  13. "Tokyo is much more affordable .. " took me a while to have that sets in in my mind ~ seriously??? =s