Japan’s Real Wages Fall 1.3 Pct in 2025

Tokyo, Feb. 9 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s inflation-adjusted real wages in 2025 fell 1.3 pct from the previous year, down for the fourth consecutive year, due to price increases for food and other items outpacing wage hikes, the labor ministry said in a preliminary report Monday. Monthly nominal wages, including base salary and overtime pay, increased 2.3 pct to 355,919 yen on average. Of the total, regular pay grew 2.0 pct. Both figures logged an increase of 2 pct or more for the second straight year. By employment type, regular pay for full-time workers grew 2.5 pct, the steepest growth since comparable data records began in 1994. The average hourly wages for part-timers climbed 3.8 pct to record 1,394 yen. Nominal wages logged robust increases, reflecting wage hikes achieved in “shunto” labor-management wage negotiations. Meanwhile, the consumer price index excluding imputed rent, used to calculate real wages, climbed 3.7 pct, accelerating from the previous year’s growth of 3.2 pct and pushing down real wages. A separate real wage index used for international comparison, calculated using the overall CPI that includes imputed rent, was down 0.8 pct. For December alone, real wages dipped 0.1 pct from the same month last year, decreasing for the 12th consecutive month. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]