Hacker News Reader

Comment by iamben | Hacker News Reader

What experience level is that for the dev? I'd say you're paying more than that for equivalent in London, but that salary would be relatively junior.

View on HN

The job security is on a different level though. Also, I suspect real estate around Tokyo, albeit inflated since the '80s, is not as bad as London, because attractiveness of the city is significantly restricted at the cultural level (London attracts loads of people from everywhere, Tokyo mostly attracts "only" the Japanese).

Tokyo real estate prices have been pretty much flat for the last two decades despite population growing 50%. That’s not an accident. They work hard to make it affordable for people to move there, just like in the UK they work hard on ensuring house prices and rents go up. Governments get the housing market they want to get, based on the priorities they have.

This, so much. We have the same problem in Sweden. It was amazing how easy getting an apartment in Tokyo is. If you want to rent in my Swedish town your best bet is having parents put you on a waitlist when you are born, which a lot did. Buying is of course easy if you have the money, and it’s all governmental regulation causing it.

Generally that's the starting rate for a college graduate, who I assume would be most likely to be interested in relocating to Japan.

Here's some good numbers at different experience levels: https://www.tokyodev.com/2020/01/07/japan-developer-salaries...

I'll trust his higher end estimate of 16+ years netting you 11 million yen, but I've never seen a job posting anywhere near that even for senior engineers. And even if that is the case, 11 million yen is still far below a FAANG salary with equivalent experience.

I also have not seen many vacancies advertised at that level. But I suspect there are roles for people with the right experience. The roles are getting filled by recruiters approaching already employed people.

My guess is a very experienced developer that speak English and Japanese can get base salaries above ¥10m at FAANG in Tokyo. So probably ¥15m with bonus and RSUs is obtainable.

@iamben at current GBPJPY exchange rate of 138, ¥15m total comp would be nearing £110k.

I am out of touch of FAANG senior dev salaries are in London now. Does that sound on par?

Whether or not you speak Japanese is not a factor in getting a job at FAANG in Tokyo. Also, your guess is off by half, at least.

> Also, your guess is off by half, at least.

In which direction?

Google pays ~ 20M TC for L4; I think the compensation at Indeed/Amazon/MSFT is about the same.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com