Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced on the 19th that the 23-year average consumer price index was released, and the composite index, excluding fresh food, which had a large change, rose by 2.8% from the previous year.
For the second year in a row, the growth rate has reached the price stability target set by the Bank of Japan (2%). The composite index, which excludes fresh produce and energy, rose by 3.9%, the highest since 1981.
The price of food (excluding fresh food), which is closely related to people's lives, rose by an average of 7.5%, the highest growth rate since 1975.
Services such as accommodation and shipping fees rose by 2%, the highest in 30 years.
The trend of price increases has not stopped this year, and the composite consumer price index excluding fresh food was 106.8 in March, up 2.6% compared to the same month last year.
Food prices continued to rise due to the increase in import costs due to the depreciation of the yen, with food products other than fresh food rising by 4.6% compared to the same month last year. In addition, accommodation fees have risen sharply by 27.7% due to increased demand for tourism.
Friends who live in Japan must be deeply touched by the changes in prices, and the survey also found that in 100-yen stores such as Daiso and CanDo, high-quality and inexpensive 100 yen products are disappearing, and high-priced products of 300~1000 yen are gradually becoming the mainstream.
Mizuho Research & Technology estimates that the burden on Japanese families has increased by more than 200,000 yen on average in the past two years.
If the yen continues to depreciate at a low level of around 1 dollar = 154 yen, it is expected that the burden on households will increase by more than 100,000 yen in FY24.
According to a survey of 100 major food companies listed by Imperial Database, 26 companies announced that they would raise prices this year as of April 15, a decrease of half from last year.
The main reason for the increase in prices is that in addition to the increase in the cost of raw materials such as ingredients, the impact of wage increases in order to secure sufficient manpower is gradually expanding.
So how is the situation of Japan's wage rise this year, and is there a possibility that it will catch up with prices?
According to the results of the fourth interim survey of the Spring Fight jointly released by the Labor Organization, the average salary increase rate for regular employees was 5.2%, the highest level in 33 years since 1991, and the average monthly salary increase was 15,787 yen.
Among them, the wage growth rate of small and medium-sized enterprises with less than 300 union members was 4.75%, and the average monthly salary increased by 12,170 yen.
It is clear that the wage growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan is not as high as average, and the distance between them and large companies has widened.
According to a survey of 1,050 companies nationwide by Imperial Database, 77% of companies plan to raise or have already raised the wages of regular employees this year, and 65.2% of small-scale enterprises with few employees said they want to raise salaries.
However, 67.7% of companies, including those that did not raise wages, saw a wage increase of less than 5%, and almost two-thirds of companies were unable to meet the jointly requested wage increase target.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, real wages in Japan have fallen for 23 consecutive months, taking into account the impact of price changes. Coupled with the continued depreciation of the yen, many migrant workers feel that the yen is becoming less and less valuable.
The final results of the joint statistics on the spring bucket salary increase will be released in July, do you think there is any hope that the increase in wages will catch up with prices?
Have the cost of living and prices in Japan increased?