This is such a typical defeatist mentality that I've seen not just in Japan but amongst East Asian engineers. It's treated as some sort of menial job, there's no pride or passion in it's practice, and that's why it's so easy to be exploited.

The market is not the law or the most efficient state, it is easily influenced by large entity or a conglomerate of businesses with the common interest of depressing the costly side of their business.

To say that because the market pays a bit over what janitors are paid seems very much lacking in confidence and quite frankly, self degrading. You won't get anywhere with that kind of attitude, Japan or America.