Law Department Management Blog
Survey data collected by Optia Partners, summarized in Asian Legal Bus., Vol. 7, May 2009, gives compensation data from nearly 500 English-speaking lawyers (bengoshi) employed in corporate legal functions in Japan. The brief article does not explain whether the amounts reported are salary only or also include bonuses.
The seven industries represented show widely differing average compensation. I have listed the comp figures in declining order. Finance ¥20.4MM; Manufacturing ¥17.6MM; Insurance ¥15MM; Technology ¥14.6MM; Life Sciences ¥14.4MM; Other ¥8.9MM. Advertising and Consumer ¥6.5MM. At the conversion rate of about 100 Yen to a US dollar, that puts in-house lawyers working for Japanese financial institutions at about $200,000.