Nomura’s Starting Pay Matched by Japanese Rivals to Retain Staff

Mid-sized brokerages in Japan are following the biggest domestic firms in raising their starting salaries for new graduates, as they struggle with staffing in a tight job market.

Big companies in Japan tend to offer jobs to students who are set to graduate in March, and pay most of them the same amount. Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings Inc., one of the biggest mid-sized securities companies, said it will raise the starting monthly pay to ¥300,000 ($2,030) in April 2026 from ¥265,000 now. Rival Okasan Securities Group Inc. has already boosted salaries to ¥300,000 in April from ¥250,000.