Japan Press Weekly

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2013 July 31 - August 13 [LABOR]

Gov’t should take lead in increasing minimum wages nationwide: Shii

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo made a request on August 7 to Prime Minister Abe Shinzo that the government should sharply raise the minimum wages nationwide and implement measures for small- and medium-sized enterprises to increase the wages of their employees.

This request followed a recommendation for an increase in minimum wages in 2013, which the Central Minimum Wages Council submitted to the Labor Ministry on the same day.

Japan’s regional minimum wages differ among prefectures. Each prefectural minimum wages council discusses every year how much it will increase its minimum wage to in line with the central council’s recommendation, and then finalizes it in autumn.

This year, the advisory body to the ministry recommended raising the current hourly minimum wages, 749 yen on average, to 763 yen. In that report, all the 47 prefectures are classified into four groups A to D. The governmental body advised that group A, including Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Osaka, increase their minimum wages by 19 yen, and group D, including Okinawa, Nagasaki, and Fukushima, to increase minimum wages by 10 yen. These amounts still remain low.

Shii said, “Frankly speaking, the recommended amounts are still at a low level. An increase by only 2% is insufficient to cover the soaring prices of daily living expenses caused by the yen’s depreciation.” He stressed that the administration should take the initiative in drastically raising the minimum wages in order to eliminate the category of working poor and pull Japan’s economy out of the deflationary recession, pointing out that the annual income comes to only about 1.5 million yen when working 2,000 hours for 763 yen per hour.

The JCP chair also urged the government to direct financial circles such as Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) not to obstruct moves to increase the minimum wages, as well as to enhance the support for SMEs.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide replied to Shii, “Japan’s economy cannot be revitalized as long as SMEs are suffering from the depression. I will convey your request to the prime minister.”