Japan Work Visa Salary Expectations for Vietnamese Workers

Agencies quote gross salary. What matters is net take-home after Japanese taxes, social insurance, rent, and food — and then how much of that you can actually remit to Vietnam. The gap between the headline number and the remittance amount surprises many first-year workers.

Here is a realistic picture of Japanese earnings for Vietnamese workers, broken down by visa type, industry, and prefecture.

Base Salaries: SSW vs. Engineer vs. Domestic Vietnam

Japan's minimum wage is set by prefecture and updated each October. For 2025, the national weighted average crossed 1,055 JPY per hour — a record. For a standard 160-hour working month, that translates to roughly 168,800 JPY (approximately 27.9 million VND at 165 VND/JPY).

In practice, SSW workers in most regions earn more than the prefectural minimum because employers compete for limited qualified labor. The real ranges look like this:

Compare this to a Vietnamese factory worker in Hanoi or Binh Duong earning 8–12 million VND per month. Even at the lower end of SSW wages, Japan offers roughly three times the gross income for comparable work.

Mandatory Deductions: The Numbers That Agencies Don't Emphasize

Japan's social insurance system is compulsory for SSW workers. Opting out is not legal. Understanding the deductions tells you what you will actually receive.

Monthly deductions from a 180,000 JPY SSW salary:

After deductions, net take-home on a 180,000 JPY salary is roughly 135,000–142,000 JPY.

Then living expenses. Employer-provided dormitory rent is typically 10,000–30,000 JPY per month (employer can legally deduct this from salary). Food — either cafeteria or self-prepared — costs roughly 20,000–40,000 JPY. Total minimum living expenses in Japan: 40,000–70,000 JPY.

Net monthly remittance potential (180,000 JPY gross, employer dormitory):

• After deductions: ~138,000 JPY
• After rent deduction (20,000 JPY): ~118,000 JPY
• After food and incidentals (30,000 JPY): ~88,000 JPY
• Remittable: approximately 88,000 JPY ≈ 14.5 million VND

Salary by Industry

Not all SSW industries pay equally. Here is how they compare at the lower and upper bounds of normal experience:

Nursing care (Kaigo): 190,000–240,000 JPY. Language requirements are significant (N4 minimum, N3 preferred in practice). Physical demands are high. But the G2G (government-to-government) arrangement between Vietnam and Japan for nursing care means this pathway has structured support. Vietnam sends significant numbers of Kaigo workers under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) track, with additional training subsidies.

Construction: 200,000–270,000 JPY. Physically demanding; premium pay for physical labor in an industry where Japan faces severe domestic shortages. Many prefectures in the Kanto region — Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa — pay above average due to high demand in construction for the ongoing urban development pipeline.

Food manufacturing: 160,000–200,000 JPY. The most common SSW category for Vietnamese workers. Work involves hygiene-sensitive environments — cold storage, processing lines. Steady hours, indoor work, moderate pay.

Agriculture: 150,000–190,000 JPY. Rural prefectures (Hokkaido, Yamagata, Ibaraki) are the primary placement locations. Housing is almost always employer-provided in rural areas, reducing living costs. However, income can be seasonal and irregular.

Hospitality: 170,000–220,000 JPY. High language requirement (N3 or stronger is functionally necessary for customer-facing roles). Urban locations mean higher living costs offset some of the salary advantage.

Minimum Wage by Prefecture: Why Location Matters

Japan's minimum wage is not national — it varies significantly by prefecture. The difference between the highest and lowest prefectures in 2025 is approximately 220 JPY per hour (roughly 35,200 JPY per month at standard hours). That gap translates to nearly 5.8 million VND in monthly gross income.

High minimum wage prefectures (above 1,100 JPY/hour): Tokyo (1,163 JPY), Kanagawa (1,162 JPY), Osaka (1,114 JPY), Aichi (1,077 JPY), Saitama (1,078 JPY).

Low minimum wage prefectures (below 900 JPY/hour): Iwate, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Okinawa.

Vietnamese SSW workers are heavily concentrated in the Kanto region (Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba) — which means they are generally in the higher-paying prefectures, though urban living costs offset part of the salary advantage.

The Salary Trajectory: Year One vs. Year Three

One pattern experienced workers consistently describe: year-one earnings look good on paper but feel tight in practice. Loan repayments, initial setup costs in Japan (winter clothes, a bicycle, a phone plan, the alien registration card fee), and unfamiliarity with cost-saving strategies compress actual savings.

By year two, workers who stayed on the same contract typically see:

• Loan repayments winding down or ending
• Better command of cheap grocery shopping and cooking
• Shift to overtime-eligible status in some industries
• First resident tax liability (can be jarring — it arrives in June of the second year)

By year three, monthly savings usually peak. Workers who have repaid their loan, live in employer housing, and cook their own meals can remit 100,000–120,000 JPY per month — approximately 16.5–19.8 million VND.

The five-year financial picture for a typical SSW worker who manages costs well: 800 million to 1.2 billion VND in total net accumulation over the full five-year SSW Type 1 period. That figure assumes a 165 VND/JPY exchange rate and modest lifestyle in Japan. The exchange rate risk is real — a 10% depreciation of the JPY against the VND reduces the VND value of all remittances by roughly 10%.

The Vietnam → Japan Work Visa Guide includes a pre-departure savings projection tool that lets you model your actual net remittance based on your specific salary offer, planned loan, and prefecture — so you can see the real numbers before you commit.

See more Japan guides →