In Japan, the Company Pays for the Commute — Epoche A2
10 June 2024 Hello everyone! Here is the thing about working in Japan that most surprises my friends abroad: the company pays for the commute. Nearly every Japanese company pays a commuting allowance, tsukin teate, on top of the salary. No law demands it — it is custom, written into the company rulebook. Usually it is the exact price of a train pass between your home station and the office. Mine is about 12,000 yen a month, and the money simply appears with the salary. When I moved flat last spring, I reported the new route to HR, and the allowance changed to the new pass. Think about what this changes. A long commute costs time, but not money. Sato-san lives ninety minutes away, where flats are big and rents are low, and his train rides cost him nothing at all. People here compare towns by minutes and express stops, never by ticket prices. There is a limit, of course. Most companies set a ceiling on the allowance, so the very far towns stay out of reach. My friend in London pays for her own train to work, every month, out of her salary. On Saturday she asked what a train pass costs here. The answer took a while to explain.