Each summer the ministry surveys a large sample of establishments about the wages they paid in June, and the previous year's bonuses. The main published results cover private establishments with ten or more regular employees; the 2025 tabulation drew on just over 52,000 of them. Results appear in the following March, with detailed tables on the government statistics portal.
The headline figure is scheduled monthly earnings: base pay and regular allowances, excluding overtime and bonuses. In 2025 that averaged 340,600 yen for full-time workers, a record high: 373,400 yen for men and 285,900 yen for women, putting women at 76.6% of men, the narrowest gap since comparable data began in 1976. Because the survey also records annual bonuses, analysts can derive annual pay.
What makes it useful is the breakdown. Pay can be cut by industry, occupation, age band, years of service, education, employment type, region and company size, with separate figures for companies of 1,000 or more employees. It is the reference behind much official policy, including the general wage benchmark that dispatch agencies must match under the labour-management agreement method of the Worker Dispatch Act.
What it means for a foreign employer
- It shows the age-pay curve. You can see how steeply pay rises with age and tenure in a given industry, which explains why a 45-year-old at a Japanese company may be paid well above a younger peer with similar skills.
- It does not show the senior bilingual market. Executive and specialist bilingual pay sits far above these averages and is not separately visible. Use it for context and for broad grades, not to price a country head.
- Scheduled earnings understate total cash. Bonuses can add several months of pay at large Japanese companies. Compare on annual figures, as candidates do.
- Use it to explain your gender pay gap. National and industry figures give context for your own disclosure.
Sources
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025, summary of results, published 24 March 2026.
- Worker Dispatch Act, Article 30-4, and the ministry's annual general wage notices.