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Demographics

Let's get to know the real you.

🇯🇵 Japanese Prefecture

78% of respondents lived in the Greater Tokyo Area (Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa), down 2% from last year.

What prefecture is your primary residence in?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

Tokyo

518
2

Kanagawa

111
3

Chiba

32
4

Osaka

+1
27
5

Fukuoka

+2
24
6

Outside of Japan

22
7

Saitama

-3
22
8

Hokkaido

18
9

Aichi

17
10

Hyogo

-1
11
11

Kyoto

-5
10
12

Cutoff Answers

-2
62
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents

🛂 Residency Status

60% of respondents had a residency status tied to their employment (engineer or highly skilled foreign professional).

Which residency status do you currently have in Japan?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services

473
2

Permanent resident

167
3

Spouse/Dependent of a Japanese National or Permanent Resident

111
4

Highly Skilled Foreign Professional

100
5

Japanese citizen

73
6

Student

18
7

Other Answers

33
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents

🌏 Country or Region

Survey respondents were quite diverse, hailing from 81 different countries or regions.

What is your country or region of citizenship?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

USA

183
2

India

+3
73
3

France

-1
64
4

Japan

+2
57
5

United Kingdom

-1
56
6

Canada

+1
48
7

Australia

+4
39
8

Germany

28
9

Indonesia

+1
28
10

Russia

-7
25
11

Brazil

+1
22
12

Mexico

+3
20
13

China

17
14

Philippines

-5
17
15

Nepal

-2
14
16

New Zealand

13
17

Belgium

12
18

Myanmar

12
19

Thailand

-2
12
20

Italy

-6
11
21

Taiwan

-1
11
22

Spain

10
23

Vietnam

-5
10
24

Cutoff Answers

-3
164
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents

81% of respondents were between 20 and 39 years old.

How old are you?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

20-29

267
2

30-39

538
3

40-49

162
4

50-59

21
5

Cutoff Answers

5
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents

💕 Relationship Status

73% of respondents were in some sort of relationship.

What is your current relationship status?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

Single

261
2

In a casual or early-stage relationship

55
3

In a committed partnership (not married)

156
4

Married

495
5

Divorced or separated

12
6

Cutoff Answers

1
7

Unmatched Answers

0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents

👶 Number of Kids

While 71% of respondents had no children, among those who were married that number dropped to 47%.

How many children do you have?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

None

692
2

1

151
3

2

108
4

3

16
5

Cutoff Answers

10
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents

Gender

Male respondents had more experience than female respondents. While men had a median of 8 years of professional experience, women had 5.5 years. Furthermore, men had a 75th percentile of 12 years of experience compared to 9 for women.

This partially explains why the median compensation of male respondents was 46% higher than that of female respondents. However, when analyzing respondents by experience level and gender, women who had 6 or fewer years of experience actually had a median compensation that was the same as men. For more experienced women, though, the gap was considerable. Among those with 7–9 years experience, men earned 62% more than women. For those with 10 or more years of experience, men earned 67% more.

The reasons behind this disparity are complex, but it's clear that women face challenges in the Japanese tech industry. For ideas on concrete action your company can take to help, please see this article.

Which of the following describe you?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

Man

854
2

Woman

117
3

Non-binary, genderqueer, or gender non-conforming

10
4

Cutoff Answers

4
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents
While we know collecting and publishing diversity data can be a sensitive issue, we do think it's important to obtain this data to help measure and improve the survey's efforts in terms of inclusivity and representativeness.

🧑‍💼 Professional Experience

The median respondent had 7 years of professional software development experience.

Compensation grew steadily with experience. Respondents with less than 1 year of experience made a median of ¥2.8 million, while those with 20+ years of experience made a median of ¥14.2 million.

How many years of professional experience do you have in software development?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

<1 years

43
2

1-3 years

174
3

4-6 years

231
4

7-9 years

164
5

10-12 years

158
6

13-15 years

97
7

16-20 years

67
8

>20 years

77
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents

🇯🇵 Years in Japan

Respondents had lived in Japan for a median of 5 years.

While respondents from India made up 7% of respondents overall, they made up 14% of those who had lived in Japan for less than a year.

How many years have you lived in Japan?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

Under 1

114
2

1-3

297
3

4-6

150
4

7-9

158
5

10-12

108
6

13-15

60
7

16-20

46
8

Over 20

56
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents

🧑‍💼 Professional Qualifications

74% of respondents had a bachelor's degree or higher related to computer science.

What professional qualifications in computer science (or related fields) do you have?
Multiple
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

Bachelor’s degree

585
2

Master’s degree

261
3

Professional qualification

+1
109
4

Coding bootcamp

-1
103
5

Short-cycle tertiary education

59
6

Doctorate degree

32
7

🚫 None

89
8

Other Answers

21
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents

💬 English Ability

96% of respondents were comfortable using English in a professional setting.

What is your English proficiency?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

Conversational

+1
29
2

Business

+1
116
3

Fluent

+1
318
4

Native / bilingual

+1
517
5

Cutoff Answers

+1
11
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents

💬 Japanese Ability

41% of respondents were comfortable using Japanese in a professional setting.

What is your Japanese proficiency?
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1

None

47
2

Basic

212
3

Conversational

332
4

Business

241
5

Fluent

105
6

Native / bilingual

55
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
% of question respondents