Japan Data

Construction Tops Pay Ranking for Japan’s Listed Companies

Economy

The average annual salary at 2,681 listed companies in Japan rose by 0.6% to ¥5.99 million in 2017.
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A survey conducted by Tokyo Shōkō Research found that the median annual salary of 2,681 Japanese listed companies for fiscal 2017 was ¥5.99 million, an increase of ¥38,000 or 0.6% from ¥5.95 million the previous year. The survey, now in its sixth year, showed that the average salaries of approximately 60% of the surveyed companies had risen. While it has been reporting continuous increases, this is the second consecutive year that the rate of increase has dropped in comparison to the previous year.

According to TSR, around 60% of companies boosted their workforce, which appears to indicate that proactive employment is linked to the recent slow growth of average salaries.

By industry, the highest annual salary was in construction at ¥6.95 million, an increase of 2.7% over the previous year. Electricity and gas also saw a large increase of 2.8% with average salaries rising to ¥6.73 million. In contrast, while retail had a 0.8% increase to ¥4.75 million, this industry remained ranked last, as it has been since the survey began in 2011. The only two industries that saw decreases over the previous year were real estate, which ranked top last year, and finance/insurance.

Average Annual Salaries by Industry (2017)

Industry Number of Companies Average Salary (¥ million) Increase/decrease from 2016 Average Age
Fisheries, agriculture, mining 14 6.05 0.37% 39.8
Construction 146 6.95 2.74% 43.1
Manufacturing 1258 6.08 0.82% 41.3
Electricity, gas 20 6.73 2.81% 42.3
Transportation, information & communications 325 6.06 0.23% 39.0
Wholesale 275 6.06 0.28% 40.9
Retail 213 4.75 0.84% 38.4
Finance, insurance 118 6.40 -1.38% 39.8
Real estate 78 6.76 -0.20% 38.8
Service industry 234 5.35 0.18% 38.6
All industries 2681 5.99 0.63% 40.5

Main Distribution of Salaries in the ¥5–7 Million Range

Average salaries for 1,505 companies were in the ¥5–7 million range, accounting for more than half of the surveyed companies. Decreases from the previous year were seen in certain ranges, with 631 companies appearing in the range of ¥5 million or lower, and 29 companies in the range of more than ¥10 million. For the first time in three years, no companies appeared in the range of ¥20 million or more.

The mergers and acquisitions advisory firm GCA paid the highest average salaries for the fourth year running. Average salaries at the top three companies, including GCA, were all in the ¥15 million range. More than half of the top ten companies were general trading companies; the rest included public broadcasters, real estate companies, and machine tool manufacturers. The data also showed that 29 companies had average salaries of more than ¥10 million.

Top 10 Annual Average Salaries by Company (¥ million)

1 GCA M&A Advisor 15.59
2 Hulic Real Estate 15.31
3 Asahi Television Broadcasting Broadcasting 15.16
4 Nihon M&A Center M&A Intermediary 14.19
5 Mitsubishi Trading Company 13.86
6 Itōchū Trading Company 13.84
7 Fanuc Manufacturing 13.18
8 Sumitomo Trading Company 12.55
9 Marubeni Trading Company 12.21
10 Mitsui & Co. Trading Company 12.14

Compiled by Nippon.com based on statistics from Tokyo Shōkō Research.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: © Pixta.)

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