Real wages in Japan fall 1.8% year on year in April
Real wages in Japan declined for a fourth straight month in April, according to data from the labor ministry released Thursday, as pay increases continued to fall short of price rises.
On an inflation-adjusted basis, wages were down 1.8% in April year on year, with the inflation figure used for the calculation that month set at 4.1%.
Rising food prices have hit households hard, especially those for rice, which were up 98.4% year on year in April.
Economists say that food inflation will likely fall in the coming months, while a strengthening of the yen will bring down import costs, meaning that the inflation part of the equation should start to fall.
'Going forward, wage growth is expected to moderately accelerate, as the wage hike from this year's spring offensive will gradually be reflected,' Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute, wrote in a report on Thursday.
'As a result, the rate of year-on-year decline in real wages is projected to shrink. However, it might not turn positive until closer to the end of this year.'
Overall nominal wages, including those for part-timers, rose 2.3% in April to ¥302,453 — the 40th straight increase — while base salaries rose 2.2% to ¥269,325 — the 42nd straight increase.
Analysts are paying particular attention to the growth of base salaries, since the pace of the increase fell in February and March.
Some economists believe that the slowdown of year-on-year growth in base salaries in February and March had to do with the fact that last year was a leap year, which resulted in additional working hours. Some companies reflect February working hours in March pay, so it affected the March figure too.
When looking at data from companies that were also sampled last year, base salary growth seems to have picked up in April, with a year-on-year rate of 2.5%, compared with February's 2% and March's 2.1%.
Koichi Fujishiro, an economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, wrote in a report Thursday that the 2.5% growth in April is still unconvincing and does not definitively indicate a strong trend.
'We probably need to keep in mind the suspicion that the underlying wage growth rate may be actually slowing,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Times
an hour ago
- Japan Times
Ishiba vows to set up council for regional revitalization
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Saturday that he plans to establish a council tasked with helping promote regional revitalization led by the private sector. He hopes to include the plan, unveiled in talks with reporters during his visit to Maebashi, the capital of Gunma Prefecture, in a basic concept of his signature "Regional Revitalization 2.0" program. The envisaged council will be directly supervised by Ishiba. The basic concept is expected to be compiled this summer. "We'll consider the possibility of revising related laws while learning from the efforts being made in Maebashi" in order to help accelerate community building through public-private cooperation, Ishiba said. In Maebashi, Ishiba visited Jins Park, a regional interaction hub, which also includes an eyeglasses store. At the complex, set up by glasses chain Jins Holdings, the prime minister tried on Jins brand glasses and tasted pastries sold at the facility. He smiled and said, "This is a very nice facility." Jins Holdings has built a new office in Maebashi, using the government's tax incentive program designed to facilitate business relocations to rural areas as part of regional revitalization. Ishiba also held talks with Jins founder Hitoshi Tanaka and others, and visited a shopping district in the city.
NHK
2 hours ago
- NHK
China's college entrance exam for 13 million students begins
China's national college entrance exam kicked off on Saturday with more than 13 million students taking part. In the capital Beijing, traffic was restricted around exam venues where parents and volunteers were seen sending off exam candidates. A male student said he studied until late every day. He added that the exam would be all right as long as he did not get nervous, although he was a little. One mother said she was hoping for a good outcome as she wants her child to become a civil servant or a lawyer. The ratio of Chinese high school students advancing to higher education reached more than 60 percent in 2023, twice that of a decade ago. In recent years, competition for entry to colleges and universities advantageous to finding employment has intensified as the economy has slowed. China's education ministry says around 13.35 million applicants registered for this year's exam. That is 70,000 fewer than last year's record high. Chinese media attributed the decrease to the shrinking young population and an increasing number of students pursuing higher education abroad. The United States has been the most popular destination. But the number of Chinese studying there has declined amid tensions between Beijing and Washington after the coronavirus pandemic already slashed the total. The Institute of International Education says about 277,000 Chinese nationals studied in the US in the 2023-2024 academic year, down nearly 100,000 compared with the 2019-2020 academic year. The Trump administration announced last month that it would revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party. President Donald Trump said after a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday that those who pass US screening are still welcome. In contrast, increasing numbers of Chinese students are coming to Japan. The Japan Student Services Organization says there were over 123,000 in the 2024-2025 academic year, about 8,000 more than a year earlier. Chinese students account for the largest proportion of foreigners studying in Japan. Factors behind the increase are believed to be Japan's geographic proximity to China and the relatively low academic fees.
Japan Times
11 hours ago
- Japan Times
South Korea's Lee, Trump agree to work toward swift tariff deal
U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korea's new president, Lee Jae-myung, agreed to work toward a swift tariff deal in their first phone call since Lee was elected this week, Lee's office said Friday. Trump has imposed tariffs on South Korea, a long time ally with which it has a bilateral free trade deal, and pressed it to pay more for the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there. Separately, Trump allies have aired concerns about Lee's more conciliatory stance toward China, Washington's main geopolitical rival. Lee, a liberal, was elected on June 3 after former conservative leader, Yoon Suk Yeol, was impeached and ousted. The future of South Korea's export-oriented economy may hinge on what kind of deal Lee can strike with Trump, with all of his country's key sectors from chips to autos and shipbuilding heavily exposed to global trade. His term began on Wednesday. "The two presidents agreed to make an effort to reach a satisfactory agreement on tariff consultations as soon as possible that both countries can be satisfied with," Lee's office said in a statement. "To this end, they decided to encourage working-level negotiations to yield tangible results." Trump invited Lee to a summit in the U.S. and they plan to meet soon, according to a White House official. Analysts say the first opportunity for the two to meet could be at a Group of Seven summit in Canada in mid-June. Lee's office said the two leaders also discussed the assassination attempts they both experienced last year as well as their enthusiasm for golf. Lee underwent surgery after he was stabbed in the neck by a man in January last year, while Trump was wounded in the ear by a bullet fired by a would-be assassin in July. South Korea, a major U.S. ally and one of the first countries after Japan to engage with Washington on trade talks, agreed in late April to craft a "July package" scrapping levies before the 90-day pause on Trump's reciprocal tariffs is lifted, but progress was disrupted by the change of governments in Seoul. Lee said on the eve of the elections that "the most pressing matter is trade negotiations with the United States." Lee's camp has said, however, that they intend to seek more time to negotiate on trade with Trump. While reiterating the importance of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, Lee has also expressed more conciliatory plans for ties with China and North Korea, singling out the importance of China as a major trading partner while indicating a reluctance to take a firm stance on security tensions in the Taiwan Strait. Political analysts say that while Trump and Lee may share a desire to try to re-engage with North Korea, Lee's stance on China could cause friction with the U.S. A White House official said this week that South Korea's election was fair, but expressed concern about Chinese interference in what analysts said may have been a cautionary message to Lee. Speaking in Singapore last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said many countries were tempted by the idea of seeking economic cooperation with China and defense cooperation with the United States, and warned that such entanglement complicated defense cooperation.
