If You Ever Wanted To Be A Ninja, Starting Salary Is 85k
Japan is facing a big time Ninja shortage, and the mayor of one town says you can earn up to $85k if you want to be a ninja.
By DAVID on July 17, 2018
Buuuuut, you have to move to Japan. The good news though is that there’s a ninja shortage, so you’ll probably get in. If you’ve got what it takes, that is.
Iga is the small town (100,000 people) that claims to be the birthplace of ninjas. It’s in central Japan, about 280 miles west of Tokyo. The town even hosts a ninja festival every year. The festival brings another 30,000 people to the town, which the town’s economy benefits from. The mayor, Sakae Okamoto, wants to attract more people to the town during the festival, but he says there’s a problem. The problem is that they’re running out of ninjas. Ok, “running out of” sounds a little harsh, let’s call it “a ninja performer shortage.” The Mayor says:
Right now in Iga, we are working very hard to promote ninja tourism and get the most economic outcome. For example, we hold this ninja festival between late April to around the beginning of May. During this period visitors and also local people come here. Everybody will be dressed like a ninja and walks around and enjoys themselves — but recently I feel that it’s not enough.
So basically, the Mayor wants to bump up tourism in his town, and needs more ninja things. That includes performers to help with keeping tourists in the town longer than a day. Japan’s unemployment rate is 2.5%, which makes it hard to find people to be a ninja. Also, he says younger people aren’t interested in living in the rural location for the job. He says you can earn up to $85,000 a year, which makes the move very tempting. Too bad I can’t speak Japanese. Or do ninja things. Source.
