As a new (American) grad I briefly looked into working in Japan. The companies I was interested in were posting for Americans specifically, but they were still hiring people on as salarymen. The rates, even COLA-adjusted, were shockingly low. Like, top-flight companies offering bottom 10% salaries in American terms.
That whole experience has come to make way more sense as I've learned about the contractor divide, and the expectation that salaried workers will "start at the bottom".
Even at the top end, salaries in Japan are shockingly low AFAICT. Especially if you come out here to the countryside, most programmers are working for insurance companies, etc. I know people with 10 years of experience making in the 3-4 million yen (just over $30-40K USD) range. It's one of the reasons I do remote contracts.
That whole experience has come to make way more sense as I've learned about the contractor divide, and the expectation that salaried workers will "start at the bottom".