What's a university degree worth in Japan? About $25,500 a year

What’s a university degree worth in Japan? About $25,500 a year based on starting salaries for new graduates, and the figure has barely budged over the past decade. 

That’s about half what their counterparts start out on in the US, where pay for new graduates has climbed 8 percent since 2007, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

When graduates opened their first monthly paychecks earlier this year, on average they received 213,000 yen ($1,885), before tax, according to a survey by the Keidanren business lobby group. An annual bonus will likely take earnings for the year to about 2.9 million, according to labour ministry data for 2016, but total monthly pay will still be lower than last year.And spending a few more years at college doesn’t add much either, with the average salary and bonus for someone with a masters degrees at 3.1 million yen.

With new graduates starting at such a low base and little prospect of strong pay rises coming anytime soon, this points toward tepid growth in domestic consumption and an economy that remains reliant on exports for a large portion of its expansion. This situation reflects the overall stagnation in Japanese wages, which rose only 1 percent in the decade through 2016.

But while wages are low, many large Japanese companies do provide benefits such as transport allowances, subsidies for workers with children, cheap housing in corporate dormitories and discount lunches.

That adds another 110,000 yen a month or so to the total compensation value.