5 ms·

15 million JPY/year is a huge salary in Japan, even in Tokyo. I think your salary expectations have been skewed by your employment history.

Ultramanoid 8y ago
Indeed it is. I could take quite a few years off with a yearly salary like that, as you say, even in Tokyo.
- VRay 8y ago
  Comeon dude, don't settle for 10M JPY if you have enough technical competence to follow HackerNews Go work in Silicon Valley for two years at 35M JPY/year, then come back to Japan and spend 8 years making games (or just playing them!) Japan's software industry is toast, no point in investing even one second of your valuable time trying to prop it up. Even their home-grown businesses that fully understand all the intricacies of the local market are barely holding their own against the tendrils of US-based competitors, and they're never going to get any traction outside of Japan.
  - Ultramanoid 8y ago
    It's a different way of looking at things. I value raising my kids in a place where mass shootings in schools don't happen, and people walk on clean streets, as opposed to walking on trash and litter wondering if someone is going to mug you at any time. Or needing to buy, maintain, insure, drive a car, when you could take a clean safe comfortable train anywhere at any time. The same reason why I wouldn't take a salary ten times better to live in the U.S. is why I also won't take a salary three times better in Japan that would force me into being married to my laptop and an abusive boss, as opposed to being married to my wife and working from home with much more modest earnings. We have seen too many friends and relatives try what you suggest. They work like crazy bastards for 20 or 30 years thinking of retiring with a massive fund, paying well for kids' education, getting a nice house, etc. They end up with mental illness, family who have never spent any time with them, sick from constant abuse, exhaustion, and overwork. If they don't kill themselves in the way. We call it karoshi. Also, SONY for one ( there are others ) might disagree with your assessment, even in the relatively low place where they're at now.
  - rurounijones 8y ago
    I am with fiblye in that I believe you have vastly overestimated the costs of living in Japan and therefore the relative benefit of a higher salary in the US.
cdavid 8y ago
It is not unreasonable at all. If you have 15+ years experience in domains in demand, 15-20 millions total is totally achievable, even staying in the Japanese companies. What is true is that many companies screw software engineers over, but if you are in Tokyo , reasonably good at your job w/ skills in demand, you can and should avoid those terribe companies.

Ultramanoid 8y ago

Indeed it is. I could take quite a few years off with a yearly salary like that, as you say, even in Tokyo.

VRay 8y ago
Comeon dude, don't settle for 10M JPY if you have enough technical competence to follow HackerNews Go work in Silicon Valley for two years at 35M JPY/year, then come back to Japan and spend 8 years making games (or just playing them!) Japan's software industry is toast, no point in investing even one second of your valuable time trying to prop it up. Even their home-grown businesses that fully understand all the intricacies of the local market are barely holding their own against the tendrils of US-based competitors, and they're never going to get any traction outside of Japan.
- Ultramanoid 8y ago
  It's a different way of looking at things. I value raising my kids in a place where mass shootings in schools don't happen, and people walk on clean streets, as opposed to walking on trash and litter wondering if someone is going to mug you at any time. Or needing to buy, maintain, insure, drive a car, when you could take a clean safe comfortable train anywhere at any time. The same reason why I wouldn't take a salary ten times better to live in the U.S. is why I also won't take a salary three times better in Japan that would force me into being married to my laptop and an abusive boss, as opposed to being married to my wife and working from home with much more modest earnings. We have seen too many friends and relatives try what you suggest. They work like crazy bastards for 20 or 30 years thinking of retiring with a massive fund, paying well for kids' education, getting a nice house, etc. They end up with mental illness, family who have never spent any time with them, sick from constant abuse, exhaustion, and overwork. If they don't kill themselves in the way. We call it karoshi. Also, SONY for one ( there are others ) might disagree with your assessment, even in the relatively low place where they're at now.
- rurounijones 8y ago
  I am with fiblye in that I believe you have vastly overestimated the costs of living in Japan and therefore the relative benefit of a higher salary in the US.

cdavid 8y ago

It is not unreasonable at all. If you have 15+ years experience in domains in demand, 15-20 millions total is totally achievable, even staying in the Japanese companies. What is true is that many companies screw software engineers over, but if you are in Tokyo , reasonably good at your job w/ skills in demand, you can and should avoid those terribe companies.