• The call by the subcommittee of the Central Minimum Wages Council would raise the average minimum wage to 961 yen per hour

TOKYO: A Japanese government panel agreed on Monday to call for a hike of 31 yen, or 3.3 pct, in the weighted average minimum hourly wage in the country for fiscal 2022, apparently considering rising prices.

The call by the subcommittee of the Central Minimum Wages Council, which advises the labor minister, would raise the average minimum wage to 961 yen per hour.

The 31-yen hike is higher than the previous year’s target of 28 yen, which was the largest since fiscal 2002, when Japan started measuring minimum wages on an hourly basis.

At the subcommittee, both labor and management representatives had already recognized the need to raise minimum wages to cushion the impact of rising living costs.

However, the subcommittee had failed to reach an agreement in the past four rounds of talks, with the management side concerned that companies, mainly small firms, cannot afford to raise wages significantly as they are struggling to reflect higher material and other costs in their prices.

Raising minimum wages is a key issue for the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. In its basic economic and fiscal policy guidelines adopted in June, the government said it would make efforts to raise the weighted average minimum wage to 1,000 yen per hour or higher as soon as possible.

Each prefecture sets its minimum wage, based on the subcommittee-specified target. In fiscal 2021, minimum wages were raised to 930 yen on average.

Since fiscal 2016, except for fiscal 2020, the average minimum wage has climbed by over 20 yen, or around 3 pct.

JIJI Press