There’s a graphic (below) that’s gone viral on all the social media channels. It has a source citation that’s barely readable. Fans and advocates of Japan like it and are promoting across channels.

Japan’s minimum wage is $7/hr (translated to dollars). The infographic indicates that it takes just 14 hours/week of minimum wage work to escape the country’s definition of poverty. Supposedly, only $98/week is needed. The actual definition of poverty in Japan is $23,458. When extrapolating the false information to an annual salary, it comes to just over $5,000 —- well short of Japan’s government definition. I’m not a Japanese policy wonk or familiar with the laws there. As a onetime resident many years ago, I surmise that one cannot survive in Tokyo on less than $30,000 salary.

The infographic also fails to take into account regional differences in the countries mentioned. The minimum wage in Texas is $7.25/hr. In CA, minimum wage is going up to $16.90/hr in January 2026. The numbers to escape poverty would be different in Fresno versus San Diego. Austin is more expensive than Lubbock. NYC makes Austin look cheap.

I don’t know why the social media companies are allowing such fake news to spread. It even made it on LinkedIn, whose founder Reid Hoffman is one of the more grounded tech leaders. Unfortunately, that’s the age we live in with regulations being quashed and minimal effort to curb misinformation by the companies. Too many people make a living off of social media. The goal of social media companies is to get more content consumers for their advertisers.

American politicians either use misinformation generously or just stay quiet and earn $87/hr in the halls of Congress. Apparently, $87/hr isn’t enough for many of them.

We need laws to manage misinformation. The nonsense needs to end in order to safeguard the public.