How much does a factory worker make in Japan?

In Japan, pay can differ with experience, product-specific skills, and useful certificates. Employer size and location, work hours, and employment type matter too; night, overtime, or shift work may bring extra allowances.

What's a typical day like?

Workers check the day's job, then use tools or machines to cut, shape, or join materials such as paper or leather. They may finish, check, and pack the products, depending on what their workplace makes.

In Japan, some people join a workshop or maker after high school and learn as apprentices; others study a craft at a vocational school first. There is no single required license for this broad group, but fields such as paper-box making have their own skills test.

Japan's official job list puts violin and accordion makers—and even makers of anatomical models—in the same catch-all group.

Japan's figure is the average and the US figure is the median. Prices and exchange rates matter too, so it's a rough comparison.