September 20, 2008

The number of workers whose annual earnings were less than two million yen exceeded ten million in 2007 for the second consecutive year, up about 100,000 from 2006.

A National Tax Administration Agency survey released on September 19 shows that about 3.7 million out of these ten million workers earned less than one million yen.

In contrast, those who earned more than 10 million yen a year increased to about 2.3 million, up 84,000 from the previous year.

The figure indicates that the income gaps are widening in Japan.