Japan by the Numbers
Reports that read Japan’s labor and talent markets from public data.
- 01941,000 Chinese Live in Japan. How Many Can You Hire?7 min
Japan had 941,031 Chinese residents in June 2026. About 432,000 are employees, and the full-time hiring ceiling is near 316,000. A breakdown by visa status.
- 02Under 40% of Foreign Students Stay to Work in Japan8 min
JASSO data: 38.8% of students graduating in Japan in FY2024 took jobs there. Immigration approved 40,501 status changes in 2025, 40% of them Chinese nationals.
- 03Foreign Workers in Japan Earn 25% Below the Overall Average7 min
Japan's 2025 wage survey puts foreign workers 25% below the average of all full-time workers, foreigners included. By visa category, the gap mostly shrinks.
- 04Six in Ten or Nearly Nine: Japan's Post-Hire Gap Surveys9 min
In a 2026 en Japan survey, 61% found their latest employer worse than pictured; 87% have felt a gap at some point. Yet only 10.7% are dissatisfied. Why.
- 05Only 22% of Japan's New Hires Plan to Stay Until Retirement7 min
In Mynavi's 2025 survey of 800 new graduates in Japan, 22.4% plan to stay until retirement and 21.1% expect to leave within three years. Design jobs for that.
- 06Cost per Hire in Japan: About 1 Million Yen, Seven Years Old8 min
Japan's oft-quoted cost per hire, ¥1.03M mid-career and ¥0.94M per graduate, dates from fiscal 2019. What 2025 data adds, and what a wrong hire sinks.
- 07Why Japan Hires Mid-Career: Experience Tops Two Job Types8 min
Japan's 2025 Survey on Job Changers: ready-on-day-one experience is the top hiring reason only for managers and professionals. Elsewhere it is replacement.
- 08Retirement Pay in Japan: Leave at 15 Years, Get a Fifth9 min
In a 2023 survey of large Japanese firms, a graduate's model retirement allowance is ¥28.6M at retirement and ¥5.9M after 15 years. Hiring away? Price the rest.
- 09A Promotion to Kacho in Japan Adds 26% in Monthly Pay7 min
In Japan's 2025 pay survey, moving from subsection chief to section chief adds 26% a month with overtime, 18% for engineers. Home-country multiples misprice it.
- 10Japan's Section Chiefs Average 49.5, Promoted at 38.67 min
Japan's sitting section chiefs average 49.5 and department heads 53.1 (MHLW 2025). They were promoted at 38.6 and 44.0. Grading Japanese hires by age fails.