I guess this depends on where you're coming from. Japanese salaries for software engineering tend to be quite low, and companies do not offer equity. The highest paying software engineering jobs in Japan are for foreign, english-speaking companies.

If you're aiming to work for a Japanese company, and you're N1 in Japanese, and native-level english, you'll probably be worth more, but I doubt it would compare to working for Google, Facebook, or Stripe in Japan.

I know of people who are making 30% more than FAANG in finance and medical. But it should also be said that FAANG comp in Japan isn't particularly high.

For anyone curious this site provides some data: https://opensalary.jp/en/

How would that compare with US based pay?

I'm bilingual (brushing up on my kanji with wanikani) and considering moving to Japan, but I've always heard the comp packages aren't great.

Software Engineering salaries at Japanese companies range between $100-200k (with a normal exchange rate, right now it's closer to $80-160k), with no equity, for senior (10+ YOE) engineers. Most companies also include a yearly bonus that's equivalent to 1 month salary.

The highest paying Japanese companies tend to pay less than 1/2 of the total comp you can expect in the bay area, but may be closer to competitive to a comp package in somewhere like Atlanta or Austin.