Salary Bands, Reikin, and the Real Moving-In Cost

India Japan Kaizen — Career Bridge Series, Part 4

Part 1 of this series mapped five industries hiring Indians into Japan. Part 2 went deep on the visa process itself — the April 2026 N2 rule, three newly-approved SSW sectors, and Ikusei Shuro, the status replacing technical intern training from 2027. Part 3 named the companies actually doing the hiring, and the registries that separate a licensed agency from a scam. Read together, the first three parts get someone to an offer letter. None of them answer the two questions that actually land once that letter arrives: what does the number in it convert to in practice, and what does it cost, in cash, before the first paycheck even clears, just to have somewhere to live? Both answers turn out to be more specific, and in the housing case more front-loaded, than most candidates expect going in.

What the Offer Letter's Number Actually Means

Japan's health ministry runs an annual Basic Survey on Wage Structure that breaks pay down by residence status, and the pattern across visa categories is stark. Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) holders average somewhere in the range of ¥221,400 to ¥233,000 a month (roughly $1,450–$1,550), depending on which year of the survey is cited. Holders of the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa — the one covering most of Part 1's IT hires — average considerably more, around ¥313,200 a month (roughly $2,050, or about $25,000 a year). Technical intern trainees sit lowest of all at ¥190,300 a month (roughly $1,250) — one more concrete reason, alongside Part 2's point about trapped employers, that Ikusei Shuro is replacing that status rather than reforming it.

IT specifically splits further once it's isolated. General software-engineer compensation trackers put the average closer to ¥5–6.6 million a year (roughly $33,000–$44,000) — well under the ¥6.4–9.9 million this series' AI Bridge Series cited for AI-specialist roles specifically, but still several times the $17,000–$21,000 Asia-wide average the AI Bridge Series put on the same work done from India. Part 1 called IT the industry with the highest ceiling of the five. The wage data holds that up — the ceiling is just higher for a narrower AI specialism than for software engineering broadly.

One sector has its own legal wage floor worth knowing before anyone negotiates: the Japan Association for Construction Human Resources Development requires that SSW pay in construction track local Hello Work-area wage data for the specific skill in question, not a flat minimum wage — and explicitly disallows paying less because of a worker's Japanese ability. It's a narrower protection than it sounds, since it only covers one SSW sector, but it's a real floor Part 1 and Part 2 didn't mention.

The Reikin Shock

Almost nothing in this series' first three parts flagged the single cost that catches the most new arrivals off guard: what a first Japanese apartment demands before move-in, in cash, with no financing option attached.

• Reikin (key money). Typically one to two months' rent, paid to the landlord, and non-refundable — Japan's old custom of a gratitude payment for being allowed to rent at all.
• Shikikin (security deposit). Typically one to two months' rent, refundable at move-out minus cleaning and repair deductions landlords apply liberally.
• Agency fee. Usually about one month's rent plus tax, paid to whichever real-estate agent arranged the viewing.
• Guarantor company fee (hoshōgaisha). Because most foreign renters can't produce a Japanese individual willing to act as guarantor, a paid guarantor company fills that role instead — typically 50–100% of one month's rent upfront, plus an annual renewal fee of roughly ¥10,000–20,000.

Add it up and a realistic first-apartment bill runs four to six months' rent, due before the keys change hands. On a ¥100,000-a-month apartment — an ordinary rate outside central Tokyo — that's ¥400,000 to ¥600,000 (roughly $2,650–$4,000) in cash, typically wired before a single Japanese paycheck has cleared. “Zero key money” listings exist and are growing more common in Tokyo and Osaka specifically, but they remain the exception outside those two cities, not the rule.

One Visa the Employer Must Cover, and One It Doesn't Have To

Here the SSW and Engineer/Specialist pathways this series has tracked since Part 1 diverge sharply, in a way that favors the lower-paid visa. Under Japan's Immigration Services Agency operational guidelines, housing assistance is one of ten legally mandated support items a company sponsoring an SSW worker must provide — not a best-effort courtesy. If that support takes the form of a guarantor company, the law requires the employer to bear the fee itself rather than pass it to the worker, and the housing arranged has to meet a minimum room-size standard of 7.5 square metres per person.

The Engineer/Specialist visa — the one covering most of Part 1's IT hires, and the industry this series has called the highest-ceiling of the five — carries no equivalent mandate. An employer sponsoring that visa is sponsoring immigration status, full stop; nothing in that sponsorship legally requires covering reikin, shikikin, or a guarantor fee. The reikin shock above lands hardest on exactly the industry this series has called the highest ceiling of the five.

The Housing Backdoor Few New Arrivals Know About

One public option sidesteps nearly all of the above, and almost nobody arriving for a new job in Japan seems to hear about it before signing a private-market lease. UR housing — apartments run directly by the government's Urban Renaissance Agency, more than 700,000 units nationwide — charges no key money, no agency fee, and no renewal fee, and requires no guarantor at all. In place of one, UR uses an income test, roughly requiring annual income at or above four times the monthly rent. It's open to foreign residents holding a residence card with at least a year of remaining status (working-holiday visa holders are the exception, required to prepay a full year's rent instead under UR's own rules). None of the hiring pipelines Part 3 named — BorderPlus, Sompo Care, NSDC's partners — appears to point candidates toward it, so it stays a quiet workaround most people only discover after already paying a private-market reikin once.

What's Still Missing

The health ministry's wage data comes broken down by residence status, not by residence status crossed with industry, so comparing an SSW caregiver's pay against an SSW construction worker's pay still means hunting two separate, imperfectly comparable datasets rather than reading one table. None of the companies Part 3 named publish a specific relocation-allowance or housing-support figure beyond general language about "relocation support," so a candidate weighing one offer against another still can't compare actual cash packages side by side. And the gap that matters most structurally — nothing closes the distance between SSW's legally mandated housing support and the Engineer/Specialist visa's lack of one, which means the IT hires this series has called the highest-ceiling industry of the five are, on this one specific cost, the least protected by law of anyone this series has covered.

If you've just received, or are about to negotiate, a Japan job offer and want to know what to actually ask for in writing before you say yes — or if you're an employer or relocation-support provider who wants incoming hires to find you before they overpay a guarantor company — get in touch. Getting real numbers in front of people before they sign is exactly the kind of practical help India Japan Kaizen exists to give.

This is Part 4 of India Japan Kaizen's Career Bridge Series, publishing weekly. Part 5 will look at the first few months after landing — opening a bank account and getting a phone contract without a Japanese credit history, and the tax and social-insurance withholding that shrinks this part's paycheck numbers even further.