Everyone knows that a university education leads to a higher salary, but how much higher?

According to labor ministry statistics, there isn't much difference between salaries of people in their 20s who graduated from university and persons in their 20s who graduated only from high school. But once they get older, into that part of their lives where they may start raising families, gaps start to emerge. According to a Nikkei newspaper estimate based on labor ministry statistics, for male college graduates between the ages of 45 and 49, the average annual salary in 2016 was about ¥9 million, whereas for high school graduates of the same gender and age demographic, it was ¥6.6 million. Between the ages of 50 and 54, the gap remained roughly the same: ¥9.7 million for university graduates, ¥7.2 million for those who only completed secondary school.

In terms of a lifetime of toil, the labor ministry reported in 2013 that the average male university graduate earned ¥286 million, or about 20 percent more than the average high school or vocational school graduate, which was ¥240 million. Women's salaries were less in both categories, but the 20 percent difference still applied.