Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s government will establish a panel of experts to consider ways to raise wages in small and medium-sized companies.
Japan’s average minimum hourly wage for fiscal 2024 rose to 1,055 yen from October, marking a record increase of 51 yen, or 5.1 per cent, from the previous year. The intention to raise the country’s average minimum hourly wage to 1,500 yen (US$9.90) by the end of the 2020s was announced on Friday, leaving the ambitious minimum wage target raising concerns among business owners.
The government unveiled a revised economic outlook, lowering its growth forecast for the current fiscal year to March to 0.7 per cent from 0.9 per cent projected in July, citing the lingering negative impact of the auto sector’s safety data falsification scandal.
Forecasts show consumer prices, a key measure of inflation, should rise 2.6 per cent in fiscal 2024, down from an earlier forecast of 2.8 per cent but still well above the Bank of Japan’s 2 per cent target, partly due to a slowdown in import price increases caused by the yen’s depreciation.
