The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on September 30 that the average annual salary of workers in Japan's private sector has reached a record high.

Japan's National Tax Agency released the results of its statistical survey on private salary conditions for 2025, revealing that the average annual compensation (including base pay, allowances, and bonuses) received by private sector employees was 4.87 million yen (approximately 42.85 million won).

This represents a 1.9% increase from the previous year, setting a record high for the second consecutive year.

The average salary has now shown an upward trend for five consecutive years up to this survey.

The average bonus was 749,000 yen (approximately 6.59 million won), an increase of 3,000 yen from the previous year.

Nikkei explained that wage hikes contributed to the salary growth, noting increases across the board regardless of gender or employment status as regular or non-regular workers.

By gender, the average salary per person was higher for men (5.97 million yen) than for women (3.42 million yen). By employment status, regular workers averaged 5.59 million yen (approximately 49.18 million won), while non-regular workers averaged 2.1 million yen (approximately 18.48 million won).

By industry, electricity, gas, heat supply, and water utilities recorded the highest average at 8.54 million yen (approximately 75.13 million won), while agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and mining posted the largest year-on-year increase at 13.2%.

(Photo: Yonhap News)