Japan
Latest Average Wage
−2.2% · 5 years
$50,183
Country Comparison
Japan vs France
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
Japan
vs
France
$50,1832025
Latest Average Wage
France +20.5%
(vs Japan)
$60,4832025
−2.2%2025
5-Year Wage Change
France +5.9 pts
(vs Japan)
+3.7%2025
−1.6%2025
10-Year Wage Change
France +3.3 pts
(vs Japan)
+1.7%2025
59.22024
Overall Price Level
France +11.2 index points
(vs Japan)
70.42024
Wages are PPP-adjusted average annual wages; price levels use the United States reference of 100. Years shown are each country's latest reported observation.
How Wages Have Changed
Follow PPP-adjusted average annual wages in constant prices across both economies.
USD PPP, constant prices · missing years shown as gaps, never interpolated
France
Latest Average Wage
+3.7% · 5 years
$60,483
Wage Milestones
Japan
10 Years Ago
$51,027 (2015)
Historical Peak
$52,662 (1997)
Latest Wage
$50,183 (2025)
France
10 Years Ago
$59,485 (2015)
Historical Peak
$61,289 (2019)
Latest Wage
$60,483 (2025)
Compare Everyday Price Levels
See how eight consumer price categories compare with the United States reference value of 100.
United States = 100 · Differences shown in index points
Japan (JPN)France (FRA)
Overall
−11.2 index points
100
59.2vs70.4
Food
+18.6 index points
100
112vs93.4
Clothing
−15.1 index points
100
71vs86.1
Housing
−19.8 index points
100
48.5vs68.3
Health
−9.5 index points
100
33.9vs43.4
Transport
−29.6 index points
100
84.4vs114
Recreation
−3.8 index points
100
78.4vs82.2
Restaurants & Accommodation
−17.5 index points
100
72.6vs90.1
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
France's latest average wage is $60,483 for 2025, about 20.5% higher than Japan's $50,183 for 2025 — computed straight from the two reported values. That is roughly $10,301 a year on the same PPP basis.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, France shows the stronger movement at +1.0%, against −0.5% for Japan. The five-year horizon keeps the same ordering: +3.7% against −2.2%. Both percentages are real, PPP-adjusted changes from the reported wage series.
03
Largest Price Gap
Transport shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 84.4 for Japan against 114 for France. France sits on the higher side of that 29.6-point spread; Japan reads 29.6 index points lower on the US=100 scale. The gap is stated in index points, which are not interchangeable with percentages.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Recreation: Japan reads 78.4 and France 82.2 for 2024, just 3.8 index points apart on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Health at 9.5 index points apart. A gap this small leaves the category effectively tied on the shared US=100 scale.
Understanding the Comparison
Wage Position
France holds a clear wage lead in this pairing: $60,483 for 2025, against Japan's $50,183 for 2025. The higher figure exceeds the lower one by 20.5% in relative terms — a percentage calculated from the two reported values — or roughly $10,301 a year. Both figures are expressed in USD PPP at constant 2025 prices, so they can be set side by side without any further conversion. For scale, neither series has moved by that much within any single reported year, so the gap is structural rather than the product of one unusual observation. Over ten years Japan recorded −1.6% against France's +1.7%, so the current levels were reached on visibly different long-term paths.
Wage Direction
The two wage series are currently moving in opposite directions, and the separation between them is growing. Japan continues to drift below its peak, with a one-year change of −0.5% and a five-year change of −2.2%. France stands just below its historical high of $61,289 in 2019, only 1.3% away, with a ten-year change of +1.7%. France is the side gaining in real terms (+3.7% over five years), while Japan records −2.2%, so the five-year measures point away from each other instead of converging. Each percentage is a real, PPP-adjusted change; nominal pay movements are outside what this dataset reports.
Price Profile
Japan's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 59.2, and France's reads 70.4, each measured against the United States reference of 100. One side of this pairing dominates the price profile: France sits higher in 7 of the 8 comparable categories. Transport separates the two most: Japan reads 84.4 and France 114, 29.6 index points apart. The two sit closest in Recreation (78.4 versus 82.2), only 3.8 index points apart. Counted against the US reference of 100, 1 of Japan's 8 reported categories sit above the line, against 1 of France's 8. These are index values for 2024, not currency amounts; categories without a reported value on either side are left out of the comparison.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
