In an earlier article I showed that in more than half of Japan's municipalities, the fee a sign-language interpreter receives for a dispatched assignment is simply not published anywhere. That article ended on a question I did not answer: can anyone actually live on those assignment fees?
Beyond that question sits a different group of people. Not interpreters who are called out for an assignment, but interpreters who are employed. They sit at a city-office counter, work at an information centre for deaf people, or are hired by a local association of the deaf. Nationwide there are 2,101 of them (as of 1 October 2024).
Their working conditions were surveyed in October 2025 by the National Research Association for Sign Language Interpretation (Zentsuken). It was carried out as a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare project for fiscal 2025, and 1,427 of the 2,053 people surveyed replied (a 69.5% response rate).
Unless stated otherwise, the figures in this article come from that survey, as of 1 October 2025. Money is shown in Japanese yen. For readers outside Japan, ¥1,000,000 was roughly US$6,300 at ¥159 to the dollar (Federal Reserve H.10, 31 July 2026).
Of the 854 interpreters employed by municipalities, 83 hold a permanent post. The other 771 — 90.3% — are on non-permanent contracts. Total annual pay averages ¥2,606,000 (about US$16,400). The average age is 56.5, and 42.2% are 60 or older.
76.9% of them hold the prefectural sign-language interpreter certification, and 52.9% hold the national Sign Language Interpreter licence.
1. What the survey is
Zentsuken runs two different surveys on employed interpreters. Mixing them up makes the numbers stop adding up, so it is worth separating them first.
The headcount survey runs every year and tries to count everyone. It answers "how many are there nationwide?" Reports and tabulation sheets have been published annually since fiscal 2016.
The conditions survey is a questionnaire run every few years. It asks "under what conditions are these people working?" It has been running since 1990, and the most recent round is this one, in 2025.
The 2025 questionnaire was posted on 25 September 2025 with a return deadline of 20 October. It covered interpreters employed by municipalities, public bodies and various organisations across the welfare, labour, medical and education fields.
Of the 1,427 respondents, 1,342 were women, 71 were men, 10 declined to answer and 4 left it blank. That single line tells you that this work is overwhelmingly done by women.
2. 90.3% of municipal interpreters are non-permanent
Here is the breakdown by employment status.
| Employer | Responses | Permanent | Non-permanent |
|---|---|---|---|
| All employers | 1,278 | 243 (19.0%) | 1,035 (81.0%) |
| of which municipalities | 854 | 83 (9.7%) | 771 (90.3%) |
| of which organisations | 369 | 150 (40.7%) | 219 (59.3%) |
| Educational institutions | 6 | 2 (33.3%) | 4 (66.7%) |
| Medical institutions | 21 | 2 (9.5%) | 19 (90.4%) |
Nine out of ten interpreters employed by a municipality are on non-permanent contracts.
Organisations — local associations of the deaf, information centres for deaf people — sit at 40.7% permanent, higher than municipalities. Their budgets are smaller, yet the share of permanent posts is the higher of the two.
The headcount survey, which tries to reach everyone, shows the same picture (1 October 2024). Municipalities: 104 permanent and 883 non-permanent, a non-permanent rate of 89.5%. Organisations: 258 permanent and 449 non-permanent. Different source, same shape.
One thing worth saying here. This is not a story about municipalities cutting corners. The number of staff posts a Japanese municipality may hold is fixed by local ordinance, and creating a new permanent post for an interpreter is not something a single department can decide. When the fiscal-year appointment system began in 2020, staff who had been on contract or temporary terms moved into that category. The route for holding a specialist in a permanent post is not really there in the system itself.
3. What ¥2,606,000 a year means
Total annual pay, across 1,278 respondents:
- ¥2,000,000–2,999,999: 26.9% (344 people)
- ¥3,000,000–3,999,999: 24.6% (314 people)
- Average: ¥2,606,000 (about US$16,400)
Monthly pay shows the gap between employment types clearly.
| Most common band | Second most common | |
|---|---|---|
| Municipal, permanent (83) | ¥300k–350k 31.3% (26) | ¥250k–300k 20.5% (17) |
| Municipal, non-permanent (385) | ¥200k–250k 47.5% (183) | ¥150k–200k 36.1% (139) |
| Organisation, permanent (149) | ¥250k–300k 31.5% (47) | ¥200k–250k 29.5% (44) |
| Organisation, non-permanent (82) | ¥150k–200k 48.8% (40) | ¥200k–250k 35.4% (29) |
More than 80% of non-permanent municipal interpreters earn between ¥150,000 and ¥250,000 a month (roughly US$940–1,570). At organisations it is lower still, with nearly half in the ¥150,000–200,000 band.
Set that against the level of skill the work requires. The national Sign Language Interpreter examination has a cumulative pass rate of 13.7%, and 11.2% in its most recent round (the 36th, fiscal 2025). Average annual pay for someone who has cleared that bar and taken an employed post is ¥2,606,000.
4. Average age 56.5 — four in ten are 60 or older
Age distribution across 1,278 respondents:
78.7% are 50 or older. Adding the 40s brings it to 94%.
Years of service add one more thing to the picture.
- Under 3 years: 19.8% (253) / 3–5 years: 17.6% (225) / 6–8 years: 15.6% (200)
- 9–11 years: 13.4% (171) / 12–19 years: 17.4% (222) / 20 years or more: 14.5% (185)
One in five has been in post under three years, and one in seven for twenty years or more. People are still coming in. But with an average age of 56.5, the people coming in are not young either. Becoming a certified interpreter in Japan means several years of training courses followed by the prefectural examination. Getting through that route in your twenties, while supporting yourself, is not easy.
Interpreting calls for different knowledge in every setting — medical, legal, workplace, school. That knowledge accumulates in individual people, so when people are replaced it disappears with them. With 42.2% aged 60 or over, most of the people currently holding that accumulated knowledge will have left the field within about ten years.
The headcount survey is worth a look too. As of 1 October 2024 the total was 2,101, down 23 from 2,124 the year before. It is not growing.
5. They do hold the qualifications
Certification held by respondents:
- Sign-language interpreter, certified by a prefecture or ordinance-designated city: 983 (76.9%)
- Sign Language Interpreter licence, certified by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare: 677 (52.9%)
More than half of employed interpreters hold the national licence, and more than three quarters hold the prefectural certification.
So the explanation that "pay stays low because the skill is not certified" does not hold here. It is certified. What the two numbers show, placed side by side, is that certification and employment status are not connected.
6. Numbers up 3.4× in 35 years; the permanent share has not moved
A longer view. Zentsuken's conditions survey has been running since 1990, and the number of people it was sent to — that is, the number of employed interpreters identified at the time — looks like this.
| Survey year | 1990 | 1995 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People surveyed | 598 | 844 | 1,147 | 1,376 | 1,535 | 1,801 | 2,053 |
That is 3.4 times in 35 years. As a public service it has certainly expanded.
The share on permanent contracts, meanwhile:
- 2015 survey (1,262 valid responses): 192 permanent (17.5%) / 902 non-permanent (82.1%)
- 2025 survey (1,278 employed respondents): 243 permanent (19.0%) / 1,035 non-permanent (81.0%)
Ten years, almost no movement. The headcount grew, but most of that growth was filled with non-permanent posts. Take municipalities alone and the permanent share is 9.7%.
These two surveys do not use the same denominator (2015 is all valid responses; 2025 is people employed by municipalities and organisations). Rather than subtracting one percentage from the other, I would read this only as far as "it has not changed much."
7. How this connects to assignment fees
The figures above are about interpreters who are employed. There is a second way of working: registering and being dispatched to individual assignments.
I checked assignment fees across Japan's municipalities from primary sources — each municipality's own regulations, ordinances and official pages — looking for the amount the interpreter personally receives. A confirmed amount was public for only 13% of them. The amounts themselves ranged from ¥2,000 to ¥10,000 for the same two hours.
Put the two side by side:
- Dispatched interpreters: a few thousand yen for two hours, with no control over how many assignments come
- Employed interpreters: ¥2,606,000 a year on average, with 90.3% of municipal posts non-permanent
Whichever door you come in through, building a living around interpreting alone is not simple. Fees being invisible and permanent posts being scarce are two faces of the same structure.
What about your town?
The results of the nationwide primary-source survey of assignment fees can be explored on the map.
Open the interpreter pay map →8. How to read these numbers, and what they do not cover
A few points to keep in mind.
The headcount survey and the conditions survey are different things. The headcount survey (1 October 2024, total 2,101) counts everyone it can reach; the conditions survey (1 October 2025, 1,427 valid responses) asks about working conditions by questionnaire. With a 69.5% response rate, its percentages are percentages among those who replied. What the remaining 30% look like is unknown.
These are employed interpreters only. People who register and work on dispatched assignments, and people working freelance, are not included. This is not a picture of everyone involved in interpreting.
"People surveyed" means "people identified." It is the number Zentsuken could send a questionnaire to, so it does not necessarily include every employed interpreter. Whether identification was equally thorough in 1990 and 2025 is also unknown. The 3.4× figure should be read with that in mind.
In summary
There are 2,101 employed sign-language interpreters in Japan (1 October 2024), 23 fewer than the year before. Of the 854 employed by municipalities, 83 hold a permanent post (9.7%). Total annual pay averages ¥2,606,000 (about US$16,400), and the average age is 56.5, with 42.2% aged 60 or over. Of those respondents, 76.9% hold the prefectural certification and 52.9% the national licence.
Over the 35 years since 1990 the headcount has grown 3.4 times, but the permanent share has barely moved: 17.5% in 2015, 19.0% in 2025.
This is one way of reading the data. Conditions differ enormously by region, and even within non-permanent contracts they differ considerably between municipalities. If something here looks wrong from where you are, please tell me through the contact form.
Sources
- National Research Association for Sign Language Interpretation (Zentsuken), Survey on the working environment of sign-language interpreters: employed interpreters' work and health, 2025 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare project, fiscal 2025) — PDF
- Zentsuken, Headcount survey of employed sign-language interpreters, fiscal 2024 — report / tabulation
- Zentsuken, Survey on the work and health of employed sign-language interpreters (published 20 August 2016; 2015 survey) — PDF
- Zentsuken, Survey on the work and health of employed sign-language interpreters (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare project, fiscal 2020; March 2021) — PDF
- Zentsuken, list of surveys and studies
- Exchange rate: Federal Reserve H.10, 31 July 2026 (¥159.16 per US$1)