Japan minimum wage
Japan has no single national minimum wage: 47 prefectural 'regional minimum wages' are set annually under the Minimum Wage Act. This series serves the lowest prefectural hourly floor in force nationwide; the full matrix is described in notes.
| Current value | 1023 JPY/hour |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-03-31 |
| Official source | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 'Reiwa 7-nendo chiikibetsu saitei chingin zenkoku ichiran' (FY2025 regional minimum wages, national list), under the Minimum Wage Act (Act No. 137 of 1959) |
| Last verified | 2026-07-20 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
MATRIX jurisdiction: 47 prefectural hourly rates, revised each autumn on advice of the Central and prefectural Minimum Wage Councils. FY2025 (Reiwa 7) revision: lowest rate 1,023 JPY/hour in Kochi (eff. 2025-12-01), Miyazaki (eff. 2025-11-16) and Okinawa (eff. 2025-12-01); highest Tokyo 1,226 (eff. 2025-10-03), then Kanagawa 1,225, Osaka 1,177; national weighted average 1,121 (FY2024: 1,055). Increases of 63-82 yen (6.3 percent national average). Six prefectures delayed effectivity into 2026: Fukushima 1,033, Tokushima 1,046, Kumamoto 1,034, Oita 1,035 (all 2026-01-01), Gunma 1,063 (2026-03-01), Akita 1,031 (2026-03-31). effective_from is 2026-03-31 because until Akita's revision took effect its FY2024 rate of 951 remained the lowest floor in force; only from that date is 1,023 the nationwide minimum. Industry-specific (tokutei) minimum wages exist above these floors and are excluded. Next revision cycle: Council target recommendation ~Aug 2026, new rates from ~Oct 2026. Access quirk: list is PDF-only on mhlw.go.jp (HTML page carries only links); Japanese only.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-10-01 | 893 | MHLW press release, FY2023 (Reiwa 5) regional minimum wage r |
| 2024-10-01 | 951 | MHLW minimum wage portal, past-years table (Reiwa 6-nendo), |
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/jp/minimum-wage
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/jp/minimum-wage/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/jp/minimum-wageOther Japan series: policy interest rate · VAT rate · public holidays · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates