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Economy

Cheap Japan: Low wages for tech workers delight foreign companies

Hong Kong, Singapore and US outshine former dream destination

People take photos of the illumination at Osaka's Midosuji district. After three decades of slow growth, Japan has become a low-paying country. (Photo by Tomoki Mera)

TOKYO -- Eunice Yeung Yin-yue, a Hong Konger who joined a Jasdaq-listed software developer in spring 2018, still remembers the worried looks from her parents when she told them about her plans to work in Japan.

"Isn't pay low in Japan?" they asked. Yeung's brother, a systems engineer in the U.S., makes four times what she earns.

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