Workers call for 1,000 yen or more in minimum wage

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Workers call for 1,000 yen or more in minimum wage

Japanese workers are strengthening their call for the minimum wage to be raised to at least 1,000 yen as the Labor Ministry’s panel started discussions on revising its minimum wage standards.

Japan’s average minimum wage is 713 yen, much lower than the level that can ensure the minimum standards of living.

Research conducted by local unions affiliated with the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) in the Tokyo metropolitan area, Tohoku region, and Shizuoka Prefecture found that workers need to be paid at least 230,000 yen a month (1,300 yen an hour) in order to maintain a bare minimum standard of living.

Major corporations’ internal reserves have increased from 142 trillion to 229 trillion yen in the 10 years from 1997 to 2007 while employees’ wages have decreased from 279 trillion to 253 trillion yen during the same period. The number of workers receiving less than two million yen in annual income has reached over 10 million.

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Even major business think-tanks are admitting that an increase in the minimum wage is needed for economic growth.

The Japan Research Institute, affiliated with the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, in its recommendations published in May stressed the need to boost household income as one of the conditions needed to achieve a “three-percent hike in the nominal growth rate,” a target set by the government.

Fujitsu Research Institute last December also expressed a similar view in a report entitled, “An increase in the minimum wage is the best strategy for economic growth.”

In its policy recommendations in May, the Tokyo Foundation, an independent, not-for-profit think tank, stated that a higher minimum wage can be effective both in reducing poverty and in enhancing productivity.

- Akahata, July 14 and 15, 2010