According to the Bank of Japan, inflation could reach 2% in April, the objective since 2013 by the institution.
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A whole symbol. The Umaibo, these popular blown corn bars in Japan, whose price of 10 yen (7.7 cents) had not changed since 1979, now cost 2 more yen (1.5 cent). This decision of the YAOKIN confectioner illustrates the new given the archipelago. The country, enlisted since the 1990s in deflation, records, in recent months, an inflationary thrust fueled by the explosion of the costs of energy and raw materials in the wake of the pandemic of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. A phenomenon exacerbated by the sharp decline of the yen against the dollar. According to the Bank of Japan, inflation could thus reach 2% in April, the objective sought since 2013 by the central bank.
This price increase is already being felt. “I live in the countryside. Life is cheaper than Tokyo. But I worry, because the electricity and gas bills have already grown by 20%,” admits a production manager – concerned with his Anonymity – of an industrial group of the Tochigi department, north of Tokyo. Its employer has increased the average salary of 0.5%, or 1,500 yen (11,20 euros). “But the rise in prices erases that of the salary, I have the impression that one continues to be upset”, regrets this father of two children.
The Shunto (“Spring Offensive”) – These annual salary negotiations, since 1954, the life of Nippons employees – has, indeed, has completed a mixed record. Certainly, the average remuneration increase reaches 2.14%, 6,581 yen (49.20 euros). Following Toyota, the group that gives the “La”, 776 large companies in all sectors accepted, Thursday, March 24, trade union requests. The increase thus reached 2.6% at Hitachi, 2.5% at Toshiba …
Persistent prudence of companies
Non-negligible upgrades in a country where wages have been stagnating since the 1997 Asian crisis. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the average wage in the third economy of the world was 35 044 euros in 2020, against 34,934 euros in 1997. In South Korea, it jumped, over the same period, from 19 862 euros to 38 178 euros.
“The increases announced this year are a little better than expected, but the pace remains insufficient to stimulate the economy,” Regrets Hisashi Yamada, an economist of the Japanese Institute of Research. They are also far from the government’s expectations. Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, promoter of a “new capitalism”, focused on a better redistribution of wealth, pleaded for 3% increase.
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