As a result of research on a certain company, when we compared salaries 30 years ago, in other words, salaries during the bubble period in Japan, and present salaries 30 years later, we found that the current salaries were overwhelmingly low. If prices have been declining over the past 30 years, that would be unavoidable, but prices are definitely rising, so honestly how do Japanese people live? And foreigners will get a lot of question marks.
In light of the global resource shortages and rising prices resulting from the Ukraine problem, the government finally took a heavy back. In response to the government’s request, major companies have raised their base wages, but this is part of the story of some large companies, which are said to account for 99.7% of the total number of Japanese companies. Most of them are in a situation where it is difficult to raise the base salary.
In the background, it is thought that there is a unique Japanese culture (bad customs). For example, overseas, in the new year after the financial year (end of the fiscal year), utility bills and rent rise as a matter of course, and the amount billed to business partners also increases. “It’s not a bad thing, it’s a natural right, and there may be negotiations about the price, but it’s the way overseas to reach a compromise at a certain point.”
However, in Japan, if the amount billed to the customer increases due to price increases, the possibility of immediate complaints and suspension of transactions will increase. This trend is more pronounced the larger the business partner is, and is one of the major reasons why it is not possible to raise the salary base for employees of small and medium-sized companies, which account for the majority of Japanese companies.
The internal reserves of Japanese companies are said to be approximately 516 trillion yen, most of which are retained earnings of large companies with sales of 1 billion yen or more. It will be calculated as
The principle of business is a win-win condition for both the buyer and the seller, but in Japan, this principle has shifted to the buyer side. In the future, no matter how much the government asks companies to do so, it is expected that the situation will continue without whistling.
In Australia, the price in 2022 will rise by 5.2% from the previous year to $21.38. On top of this, the company pays a pension (9.5%) called superannuation, so the minimum wage is calculated to be 2,500 yen per hour in Japanese yen. However, since this is only the minimum wage, it is not a very attractive amount of money for local people, so it seems that people with temporary visas such as student visas and working holiday visas often work with this treatment.
There was a time when people who could not afford to eat in Japan, especially the second and third sons of Japanese farmers, crossed the sea in search of work. During the bubble period, Japan was touted as a country where the sun never sets, but instead of raising wages, there are some industries where wages are lower than they were 30 years ago. Among the young people who will be responsible for the future, there are also stories of people who are highly capable and good at gathering information, have given up on Japan, and have crossed the sea and worked locally, earning large sums of money that cannot be obtained in Japan. It’s starting to come out. Filling the wage gap with overseas is an urgent task for the Japanese economy in the future and will be a major problem.
