The wages for waiter are not very high, when I was a student there (12 years ago) I was paid 720 yens per hour (not in Tokyo though, I imagine wages there are h

The wages for waiter are not very high, when I was a student there (12 years ago) I was paid 720 yens per hour (not in Tokyo though, I imagine wages there are higher). I think the reason people here tend to have more disposable income is that a lot of people live with their parents and the fact that the cost of life is not as high as in the US. I do agree with you though, I dislike tipping and I find the service in Japan without tipping to be better than the service in US with tipping. For waiters in the US, from what I've seen so far they are overpaid compared to the kitchen staff in restaurants because tips are not distributed fairly (and by law in some states, the kitchen staff cannot get a percentage of the tip). In Japan, it's the contrary, the kitchen staff would tend to be better paid (and more respected) than the waiters.