“That’s ridiculous”: 2channel founder on why salary of Japanese caregivers doesn’t exceed average annual income

Extract from Nikkan Sports via Yahoo! Japan

September 6 2025

TOKYO– On the 3rd, Hiroyuki Nishimura (48), founder and former administrator of the online forum “2channel,” shared his personal views on why wages in the nursing care industry do not rise, during his podcast Hiroyuki’s Killing Time Radio.

When asked, “I work in nursing care, why don’t wages go up?” Hiroyuki responded bluntly: “They don’t go up because it’s a job paid from taxes.”

He added, “I understand that nursing care work is very tough. Let’s set that aside. The reality is that nursing care is work that even people without prior experience can do. Of course, there are skills involved, but fundamentally, it’s a job that can be done by people without experience.”

“In other words, if it’s a job anyone can do, then there’s no reason to make the salary high, right? That’s how Japanese people think. And the reason is because it’s paid out of tax money,” he explained.

He continued, “Basically, if it were a job anyone can do, funded by taxes, and the annual salary were, say, 10 million yen, taxpayers would get angry. They’d say, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ You study, go to university, get into a decent company, and then you’re earning 4 million yen a year. Meanwhile, someone who dropped out after junior high or high school, working in nursing care, is making 6 million yen? People would say, ‘That’s outrageous.’ And that’s just how Japanese people are.”

He concluded, “So, essentially, nursing care workers in Japan will never earn more than the national average income. The only exceptions are managers, supervisors or business owners in the care industry can earn higher salaries. But for regular on-site staff who are not in management to earn more than the average income, Japanese society simply won’t tolerate it.”