Average Annual Salary at Major Japanese Firms Hits 69 Million Won; Semiconductor Makers, Trading Houses Rank Among Top Earners

Nikkei Releases Survey Results

A foreign media outlet reported that employees at major Japanese companies earned an average annual salary of about 69 million won last year. Electronics and semiconductor manufacturers, along with trading houses such as Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsui & Co., featured prominently among the highest-paying companies. However, the pay gap between large companies and small and medium-sized businesses remained wide.

People walk past an electronic ticker displaying the Nikkei stock average at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on the 28th. Tokyo, Japan = AFP-Yonhap.

On October 30, The Nikkei reported that its survey of salary data from 741 listed companies with at least 1,000 employees found that the average annual salary for fiscal 2025 was about 8.19 million yen (69 million won).

Keyence, an electronics equipment manufacturer headquartered in Osaka, ranked first, with an average annual salary of 21.78 million yen (185 million won). Mitsubishi Corporation ranked second at 21.12 million yen (180 million won), followed by Mitsui & Co. at 20.58 million yen (175 million won). Itochu Corporation also ranked fourth at 19.91 million yen (169 million won), highlighting the strong showing by trading houses among Japan's highest-paying major companies.

DISCO, a semiconductor manufacturing equipment maker, ranked fifth at 18.79 million yen (159 million won). It was followed by Mitsui Fudosan (18.55 million yen), Sumitomo Corporation (18.40 million yen), trading house Marubeni (17.84 million yen), real estate developer Mitsubishi Estate (17.59 million yen), and shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (16.59 million yen).

Overall wage levels also rose. The number of companies with average annual salaries exceeding 10 million yen increased by 18 from the previous year to 76, accounting for more than 10% of the total. Toyota Motor, information technology (IT) company Fujitsu, and Japan Airlines (JAL) were among the companies that newly crossed the 10 million yen mark.

The average annual salary growth rate from the previous year was 4.1%. By growth rate, pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Pharma ranked first at 27%, information and communications company DeNA ranked second at 27%, and heavy industry manufacturer IHI ranked third at 23%.

However, the wage gap between large companies and small and medium-sized businesses remained wide. According to Japan's National Tax Agency, the average annual salary of regular employees last year, including those at small and medium-sized businesses, was 5.59 million yen (47.5 million won), an increase of just 2.6% from the previous year.

The Nikkei noted that rising prices have also made it difficult for people to feel that wage increases are improving their standard of living. In a survey conducted by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) in September, only 4.5% of respondents said they had more financial leeway than a year earlier, while 54.4% said they had less. Akihiro Kaneko, chairman of the Japan Council of Metalworkers' Unions (JCM), which includes major manufacturing unions, said, "It cannot be said that all workers are feeling the benefits of wage increases."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.