Data last verified . 411 non-Tokyo listings excluded.
Tokyo salary statistics
Median salary by job category
| Job category | Live jobs | Median salary | Salary sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business & Corporate Roles | 1,992 | ¥8.0M | 678 ranges |
| Software & IT | 1,479 | ¥9.5M | 475 ranges |
| Creative & Media | 291 | ¥7.0M | 109 ranges |
| Engineering & Infrastructure (Physical) | 227 | ¥6.0M | 9 ranges |
| Customer Support & Service | 120 | ¥7.0M | 40 ranges |
| Education & Teaching | 31 | ¥6.8M | 5 ranges |
Which skills are associated with higher salaries?
| Skill | Live jobs | Median salary | Salary sample | vs market |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby | 33 | ¥12.3M | 8 ranges | +¥3.9M vs market |
| Machine learning | 156 | ¥11.0M | 33 ranges | +¥2.6M vs market |
| Generative AI / LLM | 252 | ¥10.5M | 103 ranges | +¥2.1M vs market |
| Python | 124 | ¥9.5M | 44 ranges | +¥1.1M vs market |
| Google Cloud | 68 | ¥9.5M | 27 ranges | +¥1.1M vs market |
| Terraform | 50 | ¥9.5M | 25 ranges | +¥1.1M vs market |
| Next.js | 26 | ¥9.5M | 14 ranges | +¥1.1M vs market |
| PostgreSQL | 16 | ¥9.5M | 12 ranges | +¥1.1M vs market |
| React | 54 | ¥9.3M | 29 ranges | +¥0.9M vs market |
| AWS | 143 | ¥9.0M | 41 ranges | +¥0.6M vs market |
Salary, language and visa signals
Original posting language
| Signal | Live jobs | Median salary | Published ranges | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese posting | 3,269 | ¥8.3M | 1,273 | 39% |
| English posting | 735 | ¥10.5M | 32 | 4% |
Estimated visa-support signal
| Signal | Live jobs | Median salary | Published ranges | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visa likely | 728 | ¥9.4M | 42 | 6% |
| Visa maybe | 2,190 | ¥8.3M | 914 | 42% |
| No visa signal | 1,228 | ¥8.5M | 360 | 29% |
Explicit Japanese requirement
| Signal | Live jobs | Median salary | Published ranges | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JLPT N2 | 240 | ¥8.3M | 101 | 42% |
| JLPT N1 | 152 | ¥9.6M | 36 | 24% |
Method and caveats
Annual base salary in millions of yen. Each job is represented by the midpoint of its published range.
Skills ranked by median salary, with at least 8 complete published salary ranges. Association does not prove the skill caused the difference.
How advertised salary differs alongside posting language and estimated visa support. These are unadjusted associations—not evidence that language ability or sponsorship caused the salary difference.
Only groups with at least 20 complete salary ranges are published. Coverage can differ sharply because many employers do not advertise pay, and the mix of occupations, seniority and employers differs between groups.
Posting language is observable, but it is not the same as a spoken-language requirement. English postings currently publish salary much less often, so their median may not represent the wider English-friendly market.
Visa likely means the listing has a strong AI-extracted or corroborated sponsorship signal; Visa maybe is weaker evidence. Neither is an employer guarantee, and “No visa signal” does not mean sponsorship is unavailable.
Methodology and limitations
How to read these numbers responsibly.
What is included?
4,146 live employer job pages explicitly located in Tokyo or a named Tokyo ward/neighborhood. Duplicate IDs and expired listings are removed; 411 Japan-wide or non-Tokyo listings are excluded.
How is demand measured?
A skill counts when the posting's structured vector is at least 70% confident. This includes explicit requests and strong deterministic implications such as React implying JavaScript.
How are salaries calculated?
Only valid ranges with both a minimum and maximum are used. We take each range midpoint, then calculate the median or mean across jobs. The complete-range coverage is 32%.
What does “now” mean?
The current snapshot refreshes after the job crawl. Daily aggregate snapshots are retained, and trend comparisons appear after 14 comparable days. Skill, language and visa-support fields are AI-assisted estimates; verify details on the employer's original posting.