Japan government to aim for 1% real wage growth
The Japanese government on Monday released an outline of the basic economic and fiscal policy guidelines that it will adopt in June, including a target of achieving price-adjusted real wage growth of around 1 % per year.
The outline, presented at a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, chaired by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, calls for realising a growth-oriented economy based on wage increases.
Amid uncertainties over the global economy due to US President Donald Trump's tariffs, Ishiba said at the meeting, "We'll work to prevent the trend of increasing wages and investments from stopping."
He said the government will focus on helping small businesses improve productivity and pass costs onto prices under a five-year program.
Meanwhile, private-sector members of the council, in their recommendations, described US tariffs as "the biggest downside risk" to the economy and voiced concern that companies could refrain from capital investments due to heightened uncertainty.
Amid calls for consumption tax rate cuts as a measure against inflation, they said it is important to cement the momentum for wage hikes while expanding the economy as a whole, rather than adopting tax reduction policies that are not backed by funding sources.
The members proposed focusing on necessary measures, such as those aimed at supplying rice at stable prices.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
