Glad to see this series back again. Quick note, are we really supposed to consider 500K yen a month to be a lot? That's around ~$4700 a month, or $56400 a year. Most software developers in the US make double or triple that amount on average. US office workers apparently don't make all that much either on average, so I guess it might be a parallel?
Admittedly, after poking around, the economic system of Japan seems a little complex on the surface (tax incentives, monthly payment system, healthcare etc), and the cost of living may be different, but it still seems to me that 500K yen is too little an amount of salary to be treated the way it is in this series. That might just be me though.
Edit:
@Kevadu: agreed.