The high salaries were partly due to the fact that the yen was extremely weak internationally, but mainly because of the difficulty in convincing top-class experts in technology and knowledge to come to Japan, which from the perspective of Westerners was a country on the extreme eastern edge of the Far East, a country moreover that held considerable physical danger for foreigners.
国際的に極度の円安状況だったこともあるが、当時の欧米からすれば日本は極東の辺境であり、外国人身辺の危険も少なくなかったことから、一流の技術や知識の専門家を招聘することが困難だったことによる。