According to the Asahi Shimbun on the 8th, the National Personnel Authority, which is in charge of personnel administration for civil servants, recommended the National Assembly and the Cabinet to raise the salary of administrative officials by 0.96% next year and pay an additional 0.1 month bonus.The resulting salary increase is 3,869 yen (about $30), the highest in 29 years since 1994.If the recommendation of the National Personnel Authority is confirmed as it is, the average annual salary of Japanese administrative positions for next year will be 6,731,000 yen (about $58,000), up 1.6 percent from this year.In addition, the National Personnel Authority proposed raising the starting salary of national civil servants by more than 10,000 yen (about $85) for the first time in 33 years to secure talent at a time when the number of civil servants is decreasing.The starting salary of college graduates increased by 11,000 yen (about $9) to 249,640 yen (about $2,000), and the starting salary of high school graduates increased by 12,000 yen (about $9) to 207,120 yen (about $1,750). The National Personnel Authority said, “The starting salary of public officials has become the level of large banks.
“In addition, the Tokyo Regional Minimum Wage Council sent a reply to the Tokyo Labor Bureau the previous day that it was appropriate to raise the minimum wage based on the hourly wage in Tokyo by 41 yen (about 370 yen) from 1,072 yen (about 9,800 won) to 1,113 yen (about 10,200 won).If the Tokyo Labor Bureau accepts the plan, both the increase and the rate of increase will be the highest since the current minimum wage system was implemented in 2002, Asahi said.Earlier on the 28th of last month, a subcommittee of the Central Minimum Wage Council of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare decided to raise the minimum wage to 1,002 yen (about $8) based on the national average hourly wage. It is the first time that the national minimum wage standard in Japan has exceeded 1,000 yen (about $8).Meanwhile, major Japanese companies raised wages by more than 3% for the first time in about 30 years through spring wage negotiations, but real wages fell for 15 months. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced that real wages in June, which take into account inflation of workers at companies with five or more employees, fell 1.6% compared to the same month last year.Nominal wages increased for 18 consecutive months, but real wages continued to decline due to high prices. The decline was also greater than 0.9% in May.The nominal wage per capita, including basic salary and overtime allowances, rose 2.3% year-on-year to 462,040 yen (about $3,800).
KS CHOI
US ASAI JOURNAL
