（This actually happened — I just used AI to translate my thoughts into English, so it might read a bit unnatural.）
I recently experienced something that completely shattered my understanding of income levels.
For the longest time, I believed that most foreigners in their 20s–30s in Japan earn around 250,000–300,000 yen per month. If you’re doing relatively well, maybe up to 600,000 yen — and that’s usually for technical roles or people with strong backgrounds.
Then a few days ago, I met a former classmate (we hadn’t seen each other for about a year). During dinner, he casually told me his monthly income is between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 yen.
I was honestly shocked.
In my mind, that level of income is already far beyond the “normal” range in Japanese society. What made it even more surprising is that he doesn’t have a technical background, didn’t graduate from a top school, and works at a relatively small company. He’s around 24 years old.
After that, I shared this with a friend of mine who works in another country — and she told me she earns even more than that.
That’s when it really hit me: I might have been living in an “information bubble” in Japan. I used to think income differences were relatively small — maybe 2x at most. But now I’m seeing gaps of 5–10x between people of similar age.
The strange part is: I’ve met wealthy people before, but that always felt distant — like they belonged to a different world. This feels different. When someone you consider “ordinary” suddenly turns out to be earning at that level, it hits much harder.
I’m not sure how to process this yet. It creates a kind of unexpected peer pressure. I used to feel pretty clear about my path and values, slowly building things step by step. But now that clarity feels shaken.
I know these might be outliers. Maybe I just happened to meet a few exceptions. But still — it’s hard to ignore once you’ve seen it.
Has anyone else experienced something similar?
by realjeffqi