---
title: How Long Do People in Japan Stay at One Company?
description: Japan's 12.4-year average tenure is a mean; the US 3.9 years is a median. Japan's median is 5 to 9 years. Order talent-map outreach by tenure band.
image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/covers-2026-11/japan-employee-tenure-cover-en-2026-10-m.png
---

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en)

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[日本語](https://nobusato.jp/ja/blog/japan-employee-tenure)[English](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-employee-tenure)[中文](https://nobusato.jp/zh/blog/japan-employee-tenure)

Japan by the Numbers

In this article

1. [Mean and median](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-employee-tenure#s1)
2. [A talent map needs the distribution](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-employee-tenure#s2)
3. [Order your outreach by tenure band](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-employee-tenure#s3)
4. [Gaps in the data](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-employee-tenure#s4)

1. [Home](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en)
2. [Articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en)
3. [Japan by the Numbers](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/tag/japan-by-the-numbers)

# How Long Do People in Japan Stay at One Company?

12.4 years is a mean. The median is five to nine years

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)5 min read

Contents4

1. [Mean and median](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-employee-tenure#s1)
2. [A talent map needs the distribution](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-employee-tenure#s2)
3. [Order your outreach by tenure band](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-employee-tenure#s3)
4. [Gaps in the data](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-employee-tenure#s4)

Employees in Japan stay with one company for 12.4 years on average. In the US the figure is 3.9 years. People use that comparison to show that nobody in Japan moves.

The two numbers can't be compared. Japan's 12.4 is a mean. The US 3.9 is a median.

## Mean and median

In JILPT's international comparison, Japan's figure comes from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure. It covers regular employees at private establishments at the end of June 2024, excluding short-hour workers, and reports average tenure. The US figure is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics release on employee tenure, as of January 2024, and it is a median. European countries and Korea use OECD averages, from 6.4 years in Korea to 11.7 in Italy.

Tenure is right-skewed. A minority who stay twenty or thirty years pull the mean up. In Japan, 22.7% of employees have 20 years or more, and that group lifts the average a great deal.

Japan’s 12.4 years is a mean; the median sits between five and nine

Employee tenure: Japan as a mean and an estimate from the distribution, the US as a median (JILPT, Databook of International Labour Statistics 2026, Tables 3-13-1 and 3-13-2)

- Japan, meanpulled up by the 22.7% at 20+ years

  12.4 yrs
- US, medianJanuary 2024

  3.9 yrs

**Japan’s median**　adding up from the short end

**53.3**% at nine years or less

50%: the median100%

Put a mean next to a median and the gap looks huge. Median to median, it is nowhere near three times.

Figure 1. Japan’s 12.4 years is a mean while the US 3.9 years is a median, and adding Japan’s distribution from the short end, 33.4% under five years plus 19.9% at five to nine reaches 53.3%, which puts Japan’s median somewhere between five and nine years.

Add up Japan's distribution from the short end. 33.4% have under five years. Add the 19.9% at five to nine years and you reach 53.3%. So the median employee in Japan has somewhere between five and nine years. Longer than the US 3.9 years, yes. Not three times longer.

## A talent map needs the distribution

Tenure bands set the order of outreach, not who gets screened out

Japanese employees by length of tenure, 2024 (JILPT, Databook of International Labour Statistics 2026, Table 3-13-1, from the MHLW wage structure survey)

1. 33.4%Under five yearsEasiest to move. Lead with scope and development
2. 19.9%Five to nine yearsFor core roles, look here first. Timing follows promotion rounds or reorganizations
3. 23.9%Ten to nineteen yearsNeeds a concrete reason. Bring a clear position and real authority
4. 22.7%Twenty years or moreRarely moves alone. Start with an advisory or part-time role

Both ends are thick, and almost nobody is the “typical” 12.4. For core roles, start with the five to nine year band.

Figure 2. In 2024, 23.0% of Japanese employees had under three years of tenure and 22.7% had twenty or more, and splitting them into bands of 33.4%, 19.9%, 23.9% and 22.7% gives a practical order for who to approach first and what to say.

An average of 12.4 years describes a typical employee who does not exist. Both ends are thick. 23.0% have under three years, and 22.7% have twenty or more.

Company size matters too. In 2025, large companies averaged 14.1 years of tenure at an average age of 43.4. Small companies averaged 11.5 years at 46.0. Older staff with shorter tenure suggests that small companies take in more mid-career hires. Men average 14.2 years, women 10.4.

## Order your outreach by tenure band

Most candidates are passive and will not apply. On a [talent map](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/talent-map-is-not-a-list?hsLang=en), tenure is one of the few things you can see from outside that tracks closely with whether someone will move. The [job-change rate data](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-job-change-rate?hsLang=en) also showed that the people who move are mostly young. I'd split it roughly like this:

- Under five years: the easiest band to move. Switching costs are low and experience is still building. Good for roles with room to grow. Lead with scope and development.
- Five to nine years: experience has taken shape, but firm-specific knowledge and networks haven't locked the person in yet. For core roles, I look here first. Timing often follows promotion rounds or reorganizations.
- Ten to nineteen years: deep internal knowledge, and moving needs a concrete reason. Suited to head-of roles. Bring a clear position and real authority. A vague opportunity won't do it.
- Twenty years or more: rarely moves on their own. The exceptions come with early retirement schemes or restructuring. An advisory or part-time arrangement can be a way to start the relationship.

Treat this as the order you reach out in. Don't use it to screen people out. Long-tenured people do move. They need different reasons and more time.

## Gaps in the data

I could not find reliable first-hand public data on average tenure split by foreign-owned and Japanese companies, so this post leaves that out.

Japan's median is my own estimate of where it falls in JILPT's banded distribution. It is not a published figure. Japan's data also excludes short-hour workers, and coverage differs across countries.

And tenure counts years at the current employer only. It says nothing about how many times someone moved before. Three years of tenure can be a first job or a fourth.

Have you ever sorted the candidates on your talent map by tenure?

Sources

- [JILPT, Databook of International Labour Statistics 2026, Table 3-13-2: tenure by sex and age (Japan 12.4 is a mean, US 3.9 a median) (Japanese)](https://www.jil.go.jp/kokunai/statistics/databook/2026/03/d2026_3T-13-2.pdf)
- [Same, Table 3-13-1: employees by length of service (Japan 2024) (Japanese)](https://www.jil.go.jp/kokunai/statistics/databook/2026/03/d2026_3T-13-1.pdf)
- [MHLW, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025, by company size: average age and tenure (Japanese)](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/itiran/roudou/chingin/kouzou/z2025/dl/04.pdf)
- [Same, by sex: average tenure 14.2 years for men, 10.4 for women (Japanese)](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/itiran/roudou/chingin/kouzou/z2025/dl/02.pdf)

Where lifetime employment actually came from, and how few people ever had it, is in [Lifetime Employment Is Not a Japanese Tradition](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/lifetime-employment-is-not-tradition?hsLang=en). One reason people past ten years of tenure are hard to move is the shape of the retirement allowance; see [Retirement Pay in Japan: Leave at 15 Years, Get a Fifth](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-retirement-allowance-hidden-loss?hsLang=en).

Author

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)

Launching in Japan, starting with people and systems. I write about building organizations, sales teams and technology organizations in Japan, in English, Japanese and Chinese.

[Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)[Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en)

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