The salary disparity for city assembly members nationwide can reach as much as six times, with the lowest pay generally corresponding to municipalities with small populations, according to a Kyodo News survey.

The highest annual salary is the roughly 23.85 million yen paid to members of the Osaka Municipal Assembly. That is 6.3 times more than the 3.80 million yen average annual pay for members of the municipal assembly of Ryotsu, Niigata Prefecture, the lowest pay of the country's 676 cities.

Municipal assemblies whose annual salaries for members exceed 10 million yen include those of Tokyo's 23 wards and the nation's 13 largest cities -- Sapporo, Sendai, Chiba, Saitama, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima, Kitakyushu and Fukuoka.

Salaries of 5 million yen or less are paid in cities that tend to be underpopulated.

In addition to monthly pay, assembly members get bonuses. Members who are promoted to posts such as heads of standing committees also get special allowances. In many cities, a budget covers expenses for members to conduct so-called policymaking research.

The money is usually paid to a political party that the member belongs to, or directly to the member in the case of an independent.

Osaka Municipal Assembly members continue to receive the biggest pay despite cuts made in January by the city to cope with deteriorating finances.

The average monthly salary for an Osaka assembly member is 1 million yen. Bonuses worth nearly five months' pay are paid annually in addition to 600,000 yen monthly for so-called policymaking expenses.