>to America’s ($7.25).

That's the federal minimum wage. The actual minimum wage, factoring in state and local rates is actually around $12, 65% higher.

https://www.economist.com/content-assets/images/20251122_FNC...

Minimum wage doesn’t tell you as much as you’d think. McDonald’s in my lowish cost of living area starts at $14 an hour.

The US federal minimum wage hasn’t increased in nearly 20 years. Japan raises it regularly.

But does anyone actually make minimum wage in the US? Statistics i can find suggest it is around 1% with Japan closer to 20%.

Besides what all these other commenters are saying, probably many of the people running these small lunch shops in Japan are the owners, not waged employees. On top of that, that business probably isn’t viable for 8 hours per day.

Now try actually hiring anyone at $7.25 an hour.

Not to mention most states have their own minimum wage at over $10.

$13-15/hour is the minimum even in Mississippi, which are the rates McDonald’s advertises for crew there.

1. American state minimum wage supersedes the national minimum wage [0]

2. The median household income in Japan is significantly below the US ($25,000 [1] versus $83k [2]), let alone other OECD members.

[0] - https://www.ncsl.org/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage...

[1] - https://newsdig.tbs.co.jp/articles/mro/2029703?display=1

[2] - https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-28...