Asia | Arubaito abroad

Japanese workers are seeking higher wages overseas

Economic migration

Atsuko Morita shows her friend Aya Iwaki, right, some bar snacks while bartending at Festa Karaoke Bar in San Francisco , Calif., on Thursday, July 12, 2018. Morita, photographs dive bars with a large or medium format camera and color film. She also works four nights a week bartending at a karaoke bar in Japantown. (Photo By Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images) — Life is all right in AmericaImage: Getty Images

Feb 9th 2023|TOKYO

ASHIHARA MARINA, a 25-year-old from Kanagawa, near Tokyo, wanted to see the world. Last April she seized the opportunity to migrate to Australia through its government’s “working holiday” programme, which affords one-year visas to under-31-year-olds. She spent four months working on a farm in eastern Australia and now works as a barista in Sydney. What started as an adventure has found an economic logic. The minimum wage Ms Ashihara earns is, at A$21.38 ($14.9) an hour, twice as high as Japan’s. Even working part-time, she makes more than she did toiling as a lowly office lady in Tokyo.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Arubaito abroad”