In Japan, the “paradox of the minimum wage” appeared, in which the minimum wage rose sharply and jobs decreased. According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on the 18th, the “private part-time job index” in the last week of October, compiled by data analysis company Nowcast, fell 0.3% year-on-year. It is the first time in three and a half years that the index has been negative from the same period last year.
Analysts say that the minimum hourly wage has risen sharply despite a shortage of workers, and the move to give up hiring has spread. The minimum hourly wage in Japan is applied for a year from October every year, but it has increased from 1,004 yen to 1,055 yen last month. The increase is 51 yen, the largest ever.
Kei Noguchi of En Japan, a labor service company, said, “As it becomes difficult to make profits due to rising prices, there is a movement to adjust hiring to reduce expenses such as labor costs.” Looking at the job index by industry, wholesale and retail businesses plunged 10.3%.
The Japanese government aims to overcome deflation through a virtuous cycle of wages and prices. The government plans to raise the minimum hourly wage to 1,500 yen by the mid-2030s. Lengo, Japan’s largest labor union organization, has decided to demand a 5% increase in wage negotiations next spring. This is because real wages remain on the decline due to high prices.
SOPHIA KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
