The Atarashift Blog
Insights for working in Japan
Guides, interviews, and honest advice for international talent building a career in Japan.
The Atarashift Blog
Guides, interviews, and honest advice for international talent building a career in Japan.
Japan's main work visa has no fixed minimum salary. You must earn what a Japanese colleague would. The rule for each visa, and what approved hires earned.
There is no fixed minimum salary for Japan's most common work visa, Engineer/Specialist in Humanities. The rule is relative: you must be paid at least what a Japanese employee would earn for the same work. Immigration turns down cases that fail this test, even when the pay is above the minimum wage.
Hard yen floors exist for only a few statuses. The Highly Skilled Professional visa needs ¥3 million a year, J-Skip needs ¥20 million, and the digital nomad visa needs ¥10 million.
This guide covers the pay rule for each visa, what counts as pay, and what approved applicants were paid.
For most work visas, no. Japan's landing standards (jōriku kyoka kijun) set the conditions for each status, and pay is one of them.
The equal-pay rule is the pay condition for Engineer/Specialist in Humanities. It says you must receive pay equal to or greater than what a Japanese national would receive for the same work.
That sentence contains no number. It is a comparison, and the yardstick is the employer's own Japanese staff and pay scale.
So the answer depends on the firm. Pay of ¥210,000 can pass at a firm where Japanese graduates start on ¥200,000, and fail at one that pays them ¥240,000.
The rule also applies after you arrive. The Immigration Services Agency (ISA) revised its renewal guideline in June 2026. It says work visa renewals and changes of status must, in principle, meet the same landing standards. As a result, a big pay cut can come up at your next renewal.
Our guide to the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities visa covers the education and job requirements that sit alongside the pay rule.
Only three routes publish a yen figure: Highly Skilled Professional, J-Skip and the digital nomad visa. Everything else uses the equal-pay rule, or has no pay rule at all.
| Status of residence | Pay rule | Published yen floor |
|---|---|---|
| Engineer/Specialist in Humanities | Equal to a Japanese worker in the same job | None |
| Intra-company Transferee | Equal to a Japanese worker, plus 1 year at the overseas office | None |
| Specified Skilled Worker (i) and (ii) | Equal to or above a Japanese worker | None |
| Highly Skilled Professional (i)(b) and (i)(c) | Minimum annual salary | ¥3,000,000 |
| Highly Skilled Professional (i)(a), academic research | No salary floor | None |
| J-Skip (special highly skilled) | Master's degree or 10 years' experience | ¥20,000,000 |
| J-Skip for executives | 5 years' management experience | ¥40,000,000 |
| Digital nomad (Designated Activities) | Personal annual income | ¥10,000,000 |
| Business Manager | No salary rule; ¥30M capital and 1 full-time employee since October 2025 | None |
| Dependent and spouse visas | The sponsor must be able to support the family | None |
Two things. First, the hard floor is ¥3 million a year for the specialist/technical and management tracks. Below that, you cannot qualify, however many points you score.
Second, the points table rewards pay by age. ISA's table looks like this:
| Annual salary | Points | Who scores them |
|---|---|---|
| ¥10,000,000 | 40 | All ages |
| ¥9,000,000 | 35 | All ages |
| ¥8,000,000 | 30 | All ages |
| ¥7,000,000 | 25 | Under 40 |
| ¥6,000,000 | 20 | Under 40 |
| ¥5,000,000 | 15 | Under 35 |
| ¥4,000,000 | 10 | Under 30 |
Bonuses count toward annual pay for this table, and so does pay from an overseas office if you transfer in. You need 70 points in total. Our guide to the Highly Skilled Professional visa shows how the other categories add up.
No published figure exists. ISA's permanent residency guideline asks whether you can support yourself, but names no amount. The ¥3 million that many websites quote is not an ISA rule. Our permanent residency guide covers what ISA does check.
ISA publishes real refusals in its guidance on Engineer/Specialist in Humanities. We analyzed each case in it and found two that turned on pay alone.
In both cases, the job itself qualified. The pay gap alone sank it.
On the other hand, the same document lists approvals at around ¥200,000 a month. One was a marketing role at a carmaker. Another was passenger and partner-airline work at an airline. The highest approved example is about ¥1.7 million a month, for a project manager placed at a foreign-owned carmaker.
So a "low" salary is not always a problem, and a "high" one is not always safe. What counts is how your pay compares with Japanese staff at the same company.
Pay means money you receive in return for your work, in ISA's guidance. The guidance then leaves out allowances that repay real costs, such as commuting, family and housing allowances. There is one exception: an allowance that is taxed does count.
In practice, that splits Japanese allowances into two groups.
Overtime is a gray area. ISA's guidance does not cover it, so do not count on overtime to lift low base pay.
So ask for your offer line by line, and check which items are taxed. Our guide to Japanese salary allowances explains each common allowance.
Yes. The minimum wage is the lowest hourly pay an employer may legally offer (saitei chingin in Japanese). The Minimum Wage Act covers every employee in Japan, whatever their nationality or visa. Each prefecture sets its own rate, and the rates rise every autumn.
For fiscal 2026, the national weighted average rose by ¥56 to ¥1,177 an hour, a 5.0% increase. New rates take effect between 1 October and 2 December 2026, depending on the prefecture.
| Prefecture | Hourly minimum (FY2026) | At 160 hours a month | Takes effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | ¥1,280 | ¥204,800 | 1 Oct 2026 |
| Kanagawa | ¥1,279 | ¥204,640 | 1 Oct 2026 |
| Osaka | ¥1,231 | ¥196,960 | 1 Oct 2026 |
| Aichi | ¥1,195 | ¥191,200 | 1 Oct 2026 |
| Fukuoka | ¥1,114 | ¥178,240 | 4 Oct 2026 |
| National weighted average | ¥1,177 | ¥188,320 | Varies |
We ran each rate against a 160-hour month to show what it means in monthly pay. Your real figure depends on the hours in your contract.
The minimum wage is a legal floor, not a visa test. The equal-pay rule is separate, and it is most often the one that decides a case.
ISA publishes salary data for one large group: international students who switch to a work visa when they graduate. In 2024, it approved 39,766 of these cases and recorded monthly pay for 39,732. We analyzed that table to see where approved pay really sits.
Three findings stand out.
Pay does rise with time in the job. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) runs an annual wage census. In 2025, foreign workers on professional and technical statuses averaged ¥313,200 a month in scheduled pay. That was up 7.3% on the year, at an average age of 32.4.
By contrast, all foreign workers averaged ¥254,300, and all full-time workers in Japan ¥340,600. For a fuller picture by job and age, see our guide to foreigner salaries in Japan.
It can. Renewals must in principle meet the landing standards. So ISA can weigh your current pay against what Japanese staff earn. A cut that leaves you below your Japanese colleagues is a risk.
ISA also sees your income. Staff at smaller firms (Categories 3 and 4) hand in residence tax certificates that show last year's income. Our guide to Japan's four company categories explains which group your employer is in.
Changing jobs works the same way. If you move to a lower-paying role, ISA reviews the new terms at your next renewal. If your case is unusual, contact your regional immigration bureau before you apply. Our work visa renewal guide covers the documents ISA asks for.
Use this checklist before you sign, and keep a copy of each document.
The best way to avoid a pay problem is to start with employers that already sponsor visas. They know the rule and set pay to match. Start with our list of companies that offer work visa sponsorship. Platforms like Atarashift also filter roles by visa support, so you only see employers ready to sponsor.
Often, yes. In 2024, 25.7% of approved student-to-work changes paid under ¥200,000 a month. What matters is whether Japanese staff in the same job earn the same or less. ¥200,000 can still fail at a company that pays its Japanese graduates more.
There is no fixed amount. You must be paid at least what a Japanese employee would receive for the same work. ISA judges this against the company's own Japanese staff and pay scale.
¥3 million a year for the specialist/technical and management tracks. Salary points start at ¥4 million for applicants under 30, and ¥8 million for those 40 and over. You need 70 points in total. The academic research track has no salary floor.
For the Highly Skilled Professional points table, yes: ISA includes bonuses in annual salary. For the equal-pay rule, ISA's guidance does not single out bonuses. It compares your pay with what a Japanese employee would receive, so ask for both monthly pay and bonus in writing.
Yes. The Minimum Wage Act covers all employees regardless of nationality. From October 2026, rates range from ¥1,085 an hour in Miyazaki to ¥1,280 in Tokyo. The national weighted average is ¥1,177.
Not if you are on a work visa that uses the equal-pay rule. ISA turns down cases where a foreign hire is paid less than a Japanese colleague doing the same work, and it has published two such refusals.
The pay rule for Engineer/Specialist in Humanities is from ISA's activities and landing standards. The definition of pay and the excluded allowances are from ISA's guidance on the status. The approval and refusal cases are from its annex of examples. The rule that renewals must in principle meet landing standards is from ISA's renewal and change guideline, revised June 2026.
The Intra-company Transferee rule is from ISA's landing standards for that status. The Specified Skilled Worker rule is from ISA's notes for employers. The Highly Skilled Professional floor, points table and J-Skip thresholds are from ISA's September 2025 briefing on highly skilled foreign professionals.
Minimum wages are from MHLW's FY2026 table of regional minimum wages. Wage averages are from MHLW's 2025 Basic Survey on Wage Structure, table 9. Figures are scheduled monthly pay, before overtime and bonuses. The student salary data is from ISA's report on students who found jobs in Japan in 2024, table 7. We merged its three bands from ¥350,000 to ¥500,000 into one for the chart.
The digital nomad threshold is from ISA's digital nomad page. The Business Manager rule change of 16 October 2025 is from ISA's Business Manager page. The permanent residency test is from ISA's permanent residency guideline, revised February 2026.
Atarashift's editorial team checked every figure against its primary source. This article is general information, not legal advice. ISA reviews every case on its own facts. Data retrieved 8 October 2026.
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