Ise, Mie Pref.: Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday asked companies to implement wages hikes exceeding the rate of inflation, ahead of this spring’s “shunto” labor-management wage negotiations.

“Investments in human resources through wage hikes will be the main driving force shaping the future of this country,” Kishida said at his New Year’s press conference, held in Ise in Mie Prefecture, central Japan, after visiting Ise Jingu, a major Shinto shrine in the city, earlier in the day.

Kishida emphasized that his government will work to promote wage hikes and investments, in order to create the foundations for strong economic growth with limited wealth disparities.

Following criticism about a lack of effort to correct such disparities in his “new capitalism” initiative, Kishida emphasized that he will work on wealth distribution.

He also indicated that his government will advance reform of the employment market through support measures for job retraining, a job description-based pay system tailored to Japanese society and smooth transfers of labor to growth areas.

Kishida announced that his government would introduce an “unprecedented” set of measures to tackle Japan’s declining birthrate.

On the country’s COVID-19 border controls, Kishida said that Japan will switch to polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, testing from the current use of antigen tests for all arrivals from mainland China on Sunday.

Passengers on all direct flights from mainland China will be asked to submit negative COVID-19 test results as well.

When the western Japan city of Hiroshima hosts a Group of Seven summit meeting in May, “We will send out a powerful message to realize a world without nuclear weapons,” Kishida said. Hiroshima was devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb in the closing days of World War II.

JIJI Press