Japan's negative wage growth truth: Rising wages are no match for soaring prices, and the government needs to do more

Recently, according to Japan's Jiji Press reported that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare released the "monthly survey of labor statistics" showed that personal real wages fell 1.4% in May compared with the same period of the previous year, the figure has been declining for 26 consecutive months. Faced with such data, we cannot help but ask: why do Japanese people's real incomes continue to decline despite the economic recovery? What are the deep problems behind this?

First, let's dive into the ins and outs of this issue. According to the survey, the main reason for the decline is that the impact of rising prices exceeds the wage increase effect brought by the "spring fight". The annual spring national labor negotiations in Japan are often seen as an important opportunity for workers to fight for higher wages and better working conditions. However, although this year's spring fight has brought the impact of salary increases, the impact has clearly failed to offset the pressure brought by rising prices. In particular, recent international commodity price fluctuations, the depreciation of the yen and other factors have exacerbated the rising trend of prices in Japan.

So why is the impact of rising prices so strong? There are deep problems with the structure of the Japanese economy. On the one hand, the Japanese economy has long relied on external demand, and in recent years, the slow recovery of the global economy, the rise of trade protectionism and other factors have made Japanese exports under certain pressure. In order to sustain economic growth, the Japanese government has had to adopt loose monetary and fiscal policies, which has partly exacerbated price increases. On the other hand, Japan's aging population, labor shortage and other problems are becoming increasingly serious, making enterprises face greater pressure in terms of labor costs. In order to remain competitive, companies often struggle to provide higher wage growth.

In addition, it is worth noting that the measures taken by the Japanese government to address the problem of negative wage growth do not seem to be satisfactory. While Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the government would closely monitor the future direction of wages and strongly encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to raise wages, such statements were notably lacking in concrete action plans and targets. In the absence of clear incentives and penalties, companies have little incentive to raise wages.

So, in the face of such a dilemma, how should we view and respond? First, we need to recognize that negative wage growth is not just an economic problem, but a social one. It is related to the vital interests of every ordinary people, and is related to the fairness and stability of society. Therefore, we can not only rely on the market mechanism to solve this problem, but also need the joint efforts of the government, enterprises and all sectors of society.

Second, the government should formulate more active and effective policy measures to deal with negative wage growth. For example, enterprises can be encouraged to raise employee salaries by providing tax incentives and financial subsidies. At the same time, support for small and medium-sized enterprises can be strengthened to help them improve their profitability and thus be able to offer better wages to their employees. In addition, the government can also set minimum wage standards for enterprises through legislation and other means to ensure that the basic rights and interests of employees are protected.

Finally, we also need to proactively address the challenges of negative wage growth at the individual level. For example, we can enhance our market competitiveness by improving our skills and expanding our career development space. At the same time, you can also pay attention to market dynamics and policy changes, and timely adjust your career planning and lifestyle.

In short, the problem of negative wage growth in Japan is a complex and severe problem, which needs the joint efforts of the government, enterprises and all sectors of society to deal with. Only through the formulation of more active and effective policy measures, strengthening international cooperation, promoting economic restructuring and other ways, can the fundamental solution to this problem. At the same time, we also need to start from the individual level, actively respond to challenges, improve their own quality and ability level. Only in this way can we jointly create a more equitable, stable and prosperous social environment.