How to use and how the amount is calculated
Jigen (時現, "the present moment") is a free web app that takes your hourly wage and shows, by the second, how much you are earning right now. It turns the value of time, which you rarely think about, into a number you can watch grow. There is nothing to install and no account to create. Just open it in your browser. All amounts are in Japanese yen.
How to use it
- Enter your hourly wage in yen in the wage field. The starting value is the Tokyo minimum wage (1,280 yen an hour from October 1, 2026).
- Press Start. The amount in the middle and the elapsed time begin to grow.
- Press Stop to pause. Press Start again to continue from where you left off.
- Press Reset to return the amount and the elapsed time to 0.
If you change the wage while it is running, the amount grows at the new pace from that moment. Press Stop when you take a break and Start when you go back to work, and only the time you actually worked is counted.
How the amount is calculated
The amount is worked out by converting your hourly wage to an amount per millisecond and multiplying it by the time that has passed.
One hour is 3,600,000 milliseconds (60 minutes × 60 seconds × 1,000). For example, at 1,500 yen an hour you earn about 0.42 yen per second, 25 yen per minute, and exactly 1,500 yen per hour.
| Hourly wage | 1 second | 1 minute | 1 hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 yen | about 0.28 yen | about 16.67 yen | 1,000 yen |
| 1,280 yen | about 0.36 yen | about 21.33 yen | 1,280 yen |
| 1,500 yen | about 0.42 yen | 25.00 yen | 1,500 yen |
| 2,500 yen | about 0.69 yen | about 41.67 yen | 2,500 yen |
| 5,000 yen | about 1.39 yen | about 83.33 yen | 5,000 yen |
Reading the screen
- The big number: what you have earned so far. It shows two decimal places so you can see movements of less than one yen. "YEN" under it is the unit.
- "TIME": the elapsed time, as hours : minutes : seconds.
- The outer ring: one lap is one hour. Because an hourly wage is an amount per hour, one full lap equals exactly the wage you entered.
Things to know
- The amount shown is a rough figure based on the wage you enter. It does not account for taxes, social insurance, commuting costs, overtime premiums and so on.
- Time is measured by the clock while the browser tab is open. If your device goes to sleep, the elapsed time can drift from the real time. For long sessions, keep the screen on.
This app is meant to make money visible, so you can rethink how you spend your time. Please do not use it to calculate actual pay.
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