Why This Topic Landed in Japan

For people who feel their own wages stagnating or work non-regular jobs, a statistic saying foreigners' pay is improving reads against their own circumstances. On August 31, the health and labor ministry released its 2025 survey of foreign employment: foreign "general workers" earned an average monthly wage—base pay plus overtime and allowances—of 292,400 yen, up 6.4% from the previous year, reflecting better treatment amid a labor shortage. Because it is a pre-tax average that folds in overtime and allowances, it cannot be lined up directly against all foreign residents or against Japanese young people. Around the same time, two unemployed Chinese men suspected of burglary at an elderly woman's home in Kisarazu, Chiba were arrested when they re-entered the country, and the two stories were discussed together even though no causal link between the wage figure and the individual crime has been established.

Key Reaction Themes

  • Comparison with low-paid Japanese workers (most common) — The loudest reactions measured the figure against "the bottom rung of Japanese pay" and take-home of 150,000–200,000 yen, mixing resentment with self-deprecation.
  • Labor-shortage realism — Some argued that better treatment is inevitable given the shortage, and that there are simply too many small employers.
  • Distrust of immigration and re-entry controls — Others focused on how a suspect could re-enter so easily and expected charges to be dropped.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

Foreign workers' average monthly pay reaches about 290,000 yen

A labor ministry survey put foreign general workers' average monthly pay at roughly 290,000 yen, up 6.4% year on year.

Sources: Yahoo! news, 2ch

Comments:

  • "The bottom rung of Japanese workers is 200,000 yen."
  • "How dumb. Japanese people might as well just go on welfare."
  • "See, they easily clear the permanent-residency conditions too. The trick is 'above the average household income'—if a couple both work, even foreign trainees can make it."
  • "When bankruptcy looms you can't be picky—though a slave who isn't a manager wouldn't understand."
  • "The ones most affected by minimum-wage hikes are foreigners, too."
  • "It's not so much a labor shortage as too many businesses and too many managers. If incompetent managers just closed up shop and worked at a competitor for less than the job they were posting, it would mostly solve itself."
  • "That's the same monthly pay as me, and I've worked 26 years at a major Japanese company..."
  • "Does this include bonuses?"
  • "I'm a non-regular worker making 150,000–200,000 yen, though."
  • "That's a decent amount they're getting."

Two Chinese nationals are arrested on re-entry over a burglary

Two Chinese men suspected of burglary at an elderly woman's home in Kisarazu, Chiba were arrested when they re-entered Japan.

千葉日報
千葉日報
@chibanippo
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女性宅に空き巣疑い、中国籍の男２人逮捕　再入国時に確保 chibanippo.co.jp/articles/16651… 千葉県警木更津署は１０日、住居侵入と窃盗（空き巣）の疑いで、いずれも中国籍、無職で千葉市中央区の５３歳と３８歳の男を逮捕したと発表した。 ▼続きを読む

www.chibanippo.co.jp空き巣疑い中国籍２人逮捕 木更津署木更津署は１０日、
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Sources: Yahoo! news, 2ch

Comments:

  • "Re-entering the country—how badly are we being taken for fools?"
  • "It'll be dropped without charges anyway, so arresting him changes nothing."
  • "Does this mean he'd fled to Kisarazu?"
  • "From September 15, China tightens entry and exit for its own citizens—though they probably can't go as far as a full ban."
  • "Why is someone like this repeatedly entering and leaving? No way this is a first offense."
  • "The migrant-work run failed this time... got too greedy."
  • "Lots of arrests on re-entry lately—we really are being taken lightly."
  • "So even paying round-trip airfare, the haul is big enough that they don't care. In poor Communist China, there's not enough left to steal anymore."
  • "Since it'll be dropped anyway, he'll probably just enter again."
  • "Coming to Japan to commit crimes."