Negative growth in the level of real wages was declared by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in a preliminary assessment of August results, NHK television channel reported on October 6.
The ministry surveyed more than 30,000 companies across Japan. As a result, it turned out that in August Japanese residents faced a 2.5% decrease in their real income compared to August 2022.
According to the department, during the reporting period, workers received on average 282.7 thousand yen (190.5 thousand rubles), including bonuses and overtime payments, which is 1.1% more than the previous year. Salaries are growing for the twentieth consecutive month, but they are not keeping pace with the inflation observed in the country.
Recall that for about ten years Japan has been actively trying to accelerate inflation, while constantly facing the opposite process – deflation. To achieve this, the economic bloc of the government and the central bank followed an ultraliberal monetary policy.
In particular, the Bank of Japan monitored the yield on 10-year government bonds and tried to keep them around 0%. In addition, the bank issued short-term loans at a negative interest rate (minus 0.1%).
The situation changed significantly after Japan joined Western sanctions and imposed a significant number of sanctions against Russia. This caused an increase in energy prices, which subsequently affected other goods.
Traditionally, Japan imports most of its energy resources and, in the context of the depreciation of the national currency, this phenomenon has aggravated the increase in energy prices. As a result, at the end of 2022 inflation exceeded 4%.
Against the backdrop of rising energy prices, the Japanese government began offsetting the gas and electricity bills of the country’s residents, as well as subsidizing wholesale purchases of petroleum products to curb rising prices. gasoline prices.
The current Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, in his speech after a significant rise in inflation, repeatedly stated that to build the promised “new capitalism”, it is necessary to overcome not only deflation, but also achieve stable growth in wages. , which together should form a cycle.
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Source: Rossa Primavera
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