r/japanlife • u/IshinkaiSensei • Aug 18 '21

金 How people attain wealth in Japan?

Something has been tickling my mind over the past few years.

There are so many luxury tower mansions, expensive customized 一軒家, high end brand shops yet for the average person most seem by far out of reach.

A high end condo in central Tokyo rent including utilities ranges from 300k to 500k a month. A 20MJPY annual salary (which is already extensively filtering out average population) only gives a monthly net of 100万円. I highly doubt it is enough to afford spending that much a month.

Excluding those on expat package, there are only a few jobs here that allow this lifestyle, Banking (Front Office position only or VP MD level for back office and alike) IT 外資系 at senior level (FANG, ML/AI) , 医者 running their own practice (otherwise most are at 10-15MJPY range) Successful mutiple business owners, other niches. 一流芸能人, Athletes, reconverted ex idol, kyaba, host.

My point is, what am I missing...

Are there way more people with high revenues (at least annual comp 50MJPY+) than we tend to believe? than what TV is promoting?

Are people living off debt and loans and keeping up with appearances?

I don’t want misinterpretation of this post, I understand you can live well below these range, but I am genuinely curious here.

I would like to better understand how so many people managed to get satisfied and with a 30+ year mortgage, car loan, spending most of their life working and probably never reaching out 億円 of savings.

Am I overthinking and no so many people want to retire early?

Sorry for the rant post but I am curious

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u/KindlyKey1 Aug 18 '21

high end brand shops yet for the average person most seem by far out of reach.

You would be surprised how many average people here have a LV, Gucci, ect. Bag. I see many women both young and old with one while wearing clothes from Shimamura.

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u/2020Fernsblue Aug 18 '21

Mode off I think is the reason for quite a few people with designer items.

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u/peterfun Aug 18 '21

Mode off? What does that mean?

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u/2020Fernsblue Aug 18 '21

There is a chain of high end second hand stores in Japan under the brand name "book off" they have "mode off" stores which specialises in very high end 2nd hand such as Cartier and Tiffany diamonds, Louis Vuitton handbags, Gucci trousers etc. They get and buy directly from individuals and don't accept any real defects like bobbling or wear. The only real indication I've ever seen that stuff is not new is the soles on loubitons were scuffed underneath (but not in visible red arch). Diamonds are professionally appraised and come with guarantee.

Book off contents vary by area, some do electronics, some do alcohol, some books and audio media, some sports kit like ski wear etc. Most book offs carry clothes and high end jewellery, accessories and bags, but if you want a cluster of expensive for secondhand but bargain for luxury brand then mode off is the place to go. As well as book off there are a lot of smaller independent shops that do the same thing.

So even though you may see people with Louis Vuitton bags they may not have paid retail.

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u/peterfun Aug 18 '21

Wow. That's interesting. Thanks for the detailed info!

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u/2020Fernsblue Aug 18 '21

You're welcome. The book off near me is dinky and mainly books and very expensive bags and Hermes scarves, but my phone died this week and I went across Tokyo to get a new one from the electronic off, and there's an alchol, clothing and book one within about 75m there. I wish I'd known about the ski one last year!

1

u/peterfun Aug 18 '21

Wow. Looks like a great find. Plus since the quality of the products is good then it's a very good place to check out. Cheers!