Germany vs Japan
$100,000 of real income is €71,888 in Germany and ¥10,333,658 in Japan. After income tax and every compulsory contribution, Japan leaves you $11,334 a year more to spend than Germany — and what each tax buys back is the half of the question no dataset prices.
Japan leaves $11,334 a year more than Germany on the same real income, after income tax and compulsory social contributions.
Japan leaves you $11,334 a year more to spend than Germany
The figures on this page are in international dollars, and that choice is the whole reason the comparison means anything. Converting EUR to JPY at the exchange rate would measure what your money is worth if you carried it abroad. What you want to know is what it buys where you earn it, and for that the right conversion is purchasing power parity — a basket of what households actually buy, priced in each country.
So: $100,000 of real income is €71,888 in Germany and ¥10,333,658 in Japan. Those two salaries buy the same thing before tax. They do not buy the same thing after it.
After everything compulsory — income tax and the social contributions that come off a payslip — German take-home is €43,899 and Japanese take-home is ¥7,481,432. Back in the common unit that is $61,065 against $72,399, a difference of $11,334 a year and $113,338 over 10 years.
Grey columns are what a year of Germany and a year of Japan are worth in the same money. The bars between them are each thing that changes, in the order it changes: green adds, amber takes away.
Per month, which is how anyone actually reads a payslip: €3,658 in Germany and ¥623,453 in Japan — $5,089 and $6,033 once both are put in the same unit. The $944 a month between them is the figure worth carrying into a negotiation.
Germany takes 38.9% of the gross and Japan takes 27.6%.
Income tax is only part of it, and the smaller part in Germany
Most comparisons between countries stop at the income tax rate. That is the number governments publish and the number newspapers repeat, and on a payslip it is routinely the smaller of the two deductions.
Germany, on €71,888: income tax €13,011 and compulsory contributions €14,979 — 18.1% and 20.8% of gross. The contributions are statutory pension insurance (€6,686), unemployment insurance (€935), statutory health insurance, including the average supplementary rate (€6,103), long-term care insurance (€1,256).
Japan, on ¥10,333,658: income tax ¥894,294 and compulsory contributions ¥1,957,932 — 8.7% and 18.9%. Made up of employees’ health insurance, tokyo branch (¥508,933), child and childcare support levy (¥11,884), employees’ pension insurance (¥713,700), employment insurance (¥51,668), local inhabitant tax, prefectural and municipal (¥671,747).
The base the tax is charged on is not the same thing in the two countries either. Germany taxes zu versteuerndes Einkommen and Japan taxes gross salary — which is why comparing headline rates on gross salary gets the answer wrong before any arithmetic starts.
Cheaper in Japan than GermanyDearer in Japan than Germany
Each bar is how far apart Germany and Japan are on that component, and which way. Housing almost always runs several times wider than everything else — which is why a single blended index tells you very little.
Neither country hides its contributions inside the income tax figure, so the two lines above are directly comparable: in both, what is labelled income tax is income tax and what is labelled contributions is everything else compulsory.
This is the part that took the longest to get right on this site, and it was wrong here before: the country pages used to show income tax alone and call the remainder take-home. On a salary like this that overstated what you keep by $20,836 a year in the worse of the two.
What the tax buys is the other half, and this page cannot measure it
Everything above measures what leaves your pay. It says nothing about what comes back, and between two countries that is not a detail — it is the larger half of the question.
In one country the tax bill includes your healthcare, your children's university and a pension you will actually live on. In another it does not, and you buy those yourself out of the money the page just told you that you kept. A comparison that declares a winner on take-home alone is the same trick as comparing top tax rates, which is the thing this site exists to argue against.
We looked for a way to put that half into a comparable number and there is not one. No international dataset measures the value of what a tax system returns to a household. Saying so is more useful than a made-up index.
One piece of it does exist as a figure, and here it is. Out-of-pocket health spending per person, 2023: $945 in Germany against $656 in Japan. That is what households pay directly, after whatever the public system covers — so it is a partial, honest measure of what the tax is not buying. A household in Germany pays $289 a year more directly.
The same figure as a share tells you more than the amount does. Germany spends $8,826 per person on health altogether and 10.7% of it comes straight out of households; Japan spends $5,365 with 12.2% out of pocket. The two split the bill between the public purse and the household in similar proportions, so on this one line the systems are more alike than their tax rates suggest.
And health is one line of several. Pensions, childcare, university fees, unemployment cover and the quality of what the money buys are all outside these figures — some of them larger than health. Read the numbers above as what you keep, not as who is better off.
To live the same in Japan you would need $82,756
The question behind most of these searches is not which country is cheaper. It is "I have an offer — is it enough?"
Matching what $100,000 buys you in Germany takes $82,756 of real income in Japan, which is ¥8,551,722 at Japanese prices. That is 17.2% less than you earn now — you could take a cut of $17,244 and be no worse off.
It is solved by inverting the whole calculation rather than scaling it. Brackets, contribution ceilings and deductions that do not move with pay all break the straight line, and they break it exactly at the salaries where people negotiate. A rule of thumb gets this wrong by thousands.
The dashed line is the salary you earn now. The solid line is what matches it in Japan. If the relationship were a simple multiplier the two would be parallel — they are not, because brackets, the Social Security ceiling and a property tax that does not move with income all bend it.
The figure also moves with the salary, which is why the chart below is a line and not a number: German and Japanese systems are progressive to different degrees, so the gap between them is not a fixed percentage.
The answer changes with the salary, and sometimes it flips
Both systems are progressive, but not in the same way and not at the same points. Resolved at six levels of real income:
On $30,000 — Japan by $1,256 a year. Germany keeps $22,751 of it, Japan $24,006; effective rates 24.2% and 20.0%.
On $50,000 — Japan by $4,452 a year. Germany keeps $34,467 of it, Japan $38,919; effective rates 31.1% and 22.2%.
On $75,000 — Japan by $7,706 a year. Germany keeps $48,170 of it, Japan $55,877; effective rates 35.8% and 25.5%.
On $100,000 — Japan by $11,334 a year. Germany keeps $61,065 of it, Japan $72,399; effective rates 38.9% and 27.6%.
On $150,000 — Japan by $13,843 a year. Germany keeps $87,730 of it, Japan $101,573; effective rates 41.5% and 32.3%.
On $250,000 — Japan by $8,647 a year. Germany keeps $145,730 of it, Japan $154,377; effective rates 41.7% and 38.2%.
The direction holds across the whole range — Japan at every level from $30,000 to $250,000 — but the size of the gap does not: it runs from $1,256 to $8,647.
Contribution ceilings are usually what bends these lines. Where a country caps its social contributions, the effective rate falls away above the cap; where it does not, it keeps climbing. That single design choice moves high salaries more than any headline rate does.
What is strange about each of these two systems
A bracket is a bracket everywhere. What separates two tax systems is the exception each one carries, and neither of these appears in a table of rates:
Germany — top rate 45.0%, reached at €277,825, with €12,348 exempt at the bottom. There are no brackets at all: the tax is defined in §32a as a polynomial formula on income.
Japan — top rate 45.0%, reached at ¥40,000,000, with ¥1,600,000 exempt at the bottom. A quick calculation table instead of bands, and a 2.1% reconstruction surtax charged on the tax rather than the income.
Both relieve the bottom of the scale the same way, through an exempt band of income taxed at nothing, so the two scales are at least comparable in shape even where the rates differ.
The top rate is the figure that gets quoted and it is rarely the one that matters: what decides a normal salary is where the scale starts biting, how the relief at the bottom is given, and whether social contributions are capped. All three are above.
A raise is worth more in Japan, whatever the averages say
The effective rates above are averages over the whole salary. They are not what you feel when you get a rise, and the two can point in opposite directions.
On the next $1,000 of real income at this level, Germany takes 44.7% and leaves you $553; Japan takes 34.4% and leaves you $656.
That is a gap of 10.3% on every extra unit earned — and it runs the same way as the average rates.
Marginal rates are where contribution ceilings, tapering allowances and surcharges show up. They are also what decides whether a promotion, a bonus or a second job is worth the trouble, and they are almost never in a comparison of headline rates.
Whether the contributions ever stop is the difference nobody looks at
Income tax scales are progressive almost everywhere. Social contributions are not: most countries stop charging them above a ceiling, a few never stop, and that single design choice moves high salaries more than any rate in a table.
Germany: contributions take 20.8% of a $100,000 salary and 10.1% of a $250,000 one. They are capped — the share falls away as pay rises, so the German system leans on income tax at the top.
Japan: 18.9% at $100,000 and 15.0% at $250,000. Capped as well, on the same pattern.
Both behave the same way in this respect, so the comparison between them stays fairly stable as the salary grows — the gap changes in size but not in kind.
Total share of gross taken at the two levels: 38.9% and 41.7% in Germany, 27.6% and 38.2% in Japan.
These are not equally rich countries, and the price level says so
One more thing has to be said before any of the figures above are read as advice. Germany and Japan do not have the same salaries to offer.
On the World Bank's index of household prices, where the United States is 100, Germany sits at 81.2 and Japan at 69. That is what the conversion on this page corrects for: $100,000 of real income costs an employer €71,888 in one and ¥10,333,658 in the other.
Output per person, also in international dollars: $75,407 in Germany and $55,422 in Japan. The gap is large, and it matters for a practical reason: a salary of $100,000 in real terms is a far more ordinary job in one of these two than in the other. Comparing the tax on an identical real salary is the right comparison; assuming the salary is equally available is not.
Which is the limit of every figure on this page, stated once more: it prices a salary you already have an offer for. It does not tell you that the offer exists.
Among the 27 countries here, Germany is 26th and Japan is 15th
Both resolved on the same $100,000 of real income, ranked by what is left to spend:
Thailand keeps the most, $90,352, and Italy the least, $60,321 — a spread of $30,031 on identical real pay.
Germany sits at $61,065 and Japan at $72,399. They are 11 places apart.
Sitting immediately around them: Canada at $72,437, Jamaica at $72,545, Ethiopia at $61,361, New Zealand at $71,870. If the difference between Germany and Japan looks decisive, notice how many other countries fall inside the same span — take-home alone rarely separates two places as cleanly as a single pair suggests.
A ranking of what you keep is not a ranking of where to live, and the gap between those two statements is the whole of the previous section. How this is calculated, including what it refuses to claim.
Over 10 years: $113,338
At $11,334 a year, 10 years in Japan rather than Germany is worth $113,338 in today's purchasing power.
A move between countries is the expensive kind, and none of that is in the figure: visas, shipping, a deposit in a currency you do not yet earn, and in many cases a period of paying into two systems at once. There are also tax-residence rules that decide which country taxes you in the year you move, and they are not modelled here.
The line starts below zero because moving costs about $15,000 and lands entirely in year one. It takes until year 2 for the move to pay for itself. That is the figure a per-year comparison hides.
At three horizons: $34,001 over three years, $113,338 over 10, $340,014 over thirty.
The longer the horizon, the more the part this page cannot measure matters — a pension you accrue, healthcare you will need later, a child's education. A ten-year figure on take-home alone flatters whichever country asks for less now.
The other comparisons people run next
Every country here is resolved against every other on the same real income. The ones most often paired with these two:
Australia vs Germany — Australia by $12,860 a year.
Austria vs Germany — Austria by $4,182 a year.
Canada vs Germany — Canada by $11,372 a year.
Ethiopia vs Germany — Ethiopia by $296 a year.
France vs Germany — France by $7,785 a year.
Germany vs Hong Kong — Hong Kong by $26,740 a year.
Germany vs India — India by $28,191 a year.
Germany vs Ireland — Ireland by $5,136 a year.
Germany vs Italy — Germany by $744 a year.
Germany vs Jamaica — Jamaica by $11,480 a year.
Or start from one country: every Germany comparison and every Japan comparison, each resolving all 26 on one page.
Where every number here comes from
The price level and the conversion between currencies:
World Bank, International Comparison Program — PPP conversion factor, household final consumption expenditure (LCU per international $), 2025 — read 2026-09-11. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PRVT.PP
World Bank — Price level ratio of PPP conversion factor to market exchange rate, 2025 (United States = 100) — read 2026-09-11. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PPP.03.CD
World Health Organization Global Health Expenditure Database, via World Bank — Out-of-pocket health expenditure per capita, PPP, 2023 — read 2026-09-11. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.OOPC.PP.CD
The German figures:
Germany income tax — from the authority that sets it, with the rates and thresholds on the Germany calculator page.
Germany contributions — Bundesministerium der Finanzen — Programmablaufplan für die maschinelle Berechnung der Lohnsteuer 2026, Anlage 2 (final corrected version of 12 November 2025): the Vorsorgepauschale of §39b(2) sentence 5 no. 3 EStG with RVSATZAN 0.093, KVSATZAN 0.07 plus half the supplementary rate, PVSATZAN 0.018 and ALVSATZAN 0.013, the €1,900 cap on the unemployment branch, and the Arbeitnehmer-Pauschbetrag of €1,230 and Sonderausgaben-Pauschbetrag of €36. Read 2026-09-11. https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Downloads/Steuern/Steuerarten/Lohnsteuer/Programmablaufplan/2025-11-12-PAP-2026-anlage-2.pdf
Germany contributions — GKV-Spitzenverband — Rechengrößen und Grenzwerte im Versicherungs- und Beitragsrecht für das Jahr 2026 (1 January 2026): health 14.6% plus an average supplementary rate of 2.9%, long-term care 3.6%, pension 18.6%, unemployment 2.6%, each shared equally between employer and employee; ceilings €69,750 for health and care and €101,400 for pension and unemployment. Read 2026-09-11. https://www.gkv-spitzenverband.de/media/dokumente/presse/zahlen_und_grafiken/20260101_Faktenblatt_Rechengroessen_Beitragsrecht.pdf
The Japanese figures:
Japan contributions — Japan Health Insurance Association (協会けんぽ) — 令和8年3月分からの健康保険・厚生年金保険の保険料額表, Tokyo branch: health insurance 9.85%, the child and childcare support levy 0.23% and employees’ pension 18.300%, each shared equally with the employer, on standard monthly remuneration capped at ¥1,390,000 for health and ¥650,000 for pension. Read 2026-09-11. https://www.kyoukaikenpo.or.jp/assets/R8_13tokyo.pdf
Japan contributions — Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — employment insurance rates for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027: the employee share for general businesses is 5/1,000. Read 2026-09-11. https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001692566.pdf
Japan contributions — Local inhabitant tax (住民税) is levied by the prefecture and the municipality at a combined standard rate of 10% of the previous year’s income after a basic deduction of ¥430,000, plus a per-capita levy of ¥5,000. Read 2026-09-11. https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/jichi_zeisei/czaisei/czaisei_seido/kojin_jyuminzei.html
And what is still not modelled on either side, stated rather than left to be discovered:
— Germany: The 0.6% long-term care surcharge for employees without children is paid entirely by the employee and is not applied here; the figure shown is the case with children.
— Germany: Saxony splits the long-term care contribution differently, with the employee paying 0.5 points more than elsewhere in Germany.
— Germany: The solidarity surcharge is charged on the income tax itself above a threshold and is not modelled; it now reaches only higher earners.
— Germany: Church tax of 8% or 9% of the income tax applies only to registered members of a taxing religious body and is not modelled.
— Japan: Health insurance rates are set by prefecture. The figures use the Tokyo branch of the Japan Health Insurance Association, and the page says so.
— Japan: Employees aged 40 to 64 also pay long-term care insurance, which adds 1.62 points to the health insurance rate, half of it on the employee. It is not applied here.
— Japan: Inhabitant tax is charged on the previous year’s income, so it is not paid in a first year of work and continues after leaving a job. A steady salary is modelled, where the two coincide.
— Japan: Standard monthly remuneration is fixed in bands from the April to June average rather than from the actual monthly salary, and bonuses carry their own separate ceilings.
The price figures are the 2025 release and are not extrapolated to the current year.
Where to go next
Questions
- Is it better to earn in Germany or Japan?
- On what you keep, Japan: $11,334 a year more in spending power on the same real income of $100,000. On whether you are better off, that is a different question — the two countries do not buy the same things with the tax they collect, and this page says what it can measure and what it cannot.
- How much do I need to earn in Japan to match Germany?
- $82,756 of real income, which is ¥8,551,722 at Japanese prices — 17.2% less than you earn now. It is solved by inverting the calculation, because brackets and contribution ceilings break any simple proportion.
- Why not just compare the tax rates?
- Because the income tax rate is routinely the smaller of the two deductions. On this pair, compulsory social contributions are €14,979 in Germany and ¥1,957,932 in Japan, on top of income tax of €13,011 and ¥894,294. A comparison of headline rates misses all of that, and in several countries it misses more than half of what comes off the payslip.
- Why international dollars instead of euros or dollars?
- Because an exchange rate measures what money is worth if you carry it abroad, not what it buys where you earn it. The conversion used here is the World Bank's purchasing power parity factor for household consumption, which prices a comparable basket in each country. $100,000 of real income is €71,888 in Germany and ¥10,333,658 in Japan — two very different numbers that buy the same thing.
- Does this include what the tax pays for?
- No, and that is the honest limit of the comparison. In one country the tax includes healthcare, education and a pension; in another the household buys those itself. No international dataset measures the value of what a tax system returns, so this page does not pretend to. The one piece that is measured is out-of-pocket health spending per person: $945 in Germany against $656 in Japan.
- If I move from Germany to Japan, which country taxes me that year?
- That is decided by tax residence rules, and they are not modelled here. Most countries tax you as a resident from the day you arrive or from a day-count threshold, and a double tax treaty decides which one wins where both claim you. In the year of a move it is common to file in both. The figures on this page describe a full year settled in one country, not the year you cross between them — and the difference in that one year can be larger than the annual gap shown above.
- Do these figures assume a single person?
- Yes: one earner, no children, the main regional scale where a country has more than one, and no deductions beyond the standard ones. Germany and Japan both treat households differently from single filers, and in some countries — joint assessment, family quotients, child credits — the difference is large enough to reverse the comparison. The single-filer case is the one that can be stated identically in all 27 countries, which is why it is the one used.
- Which country takes the largest share of a salary?
- Of the 27 here, Italy leaves the least of a $100,000 real income — $60,321 — and Thailand the most, $90,352. Germany leaves $61,065 and Japan $72,399.