Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
For one Japanese salaryman, nearly a decade of $4 annual
pay rises
Tue, March 15, 2022, 4:00 PM
By Elaine Lies
Instead, his annual salary of about $34,000 goes to support his family and has risen by just $4 a year for nearly a decade.
"I can't save, I have nothing at all put by for my old age. I'll just have to keep on working," said the 50-year-old, who declined to give his last name out of concern for his job at a small company that works in event planning.
"After I retire from this company, I'll do anything I can get. Maybe work as a security guard."
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has urged profitable companies to boost wages at spring wage negotiations, when managements of blue chip firms meet key unions for talks to fix wages in the coming year, setting a guideline for most other companies.
This year's talks are expected to wrap up on Wednesday.
Masamitsu, who was trained in accounting at a vocational school, switched jobs at age 43, in a move relatively unusual for Japanese employees, after his previous employer cut salaries.
After a long series of unsuccessful interviews, he felt lucky to land his current job, only to be told upfront that raises would be only 500 yen ($4.25) a year for the first decade.
"Given my age, the base pay actually wasn't too bad, there were other places that were lower," he said. "And I was told that after 10 years, it'd go up by 5,000 yen a year."
Masamitsu's monthly pay, along with allowances common in Japan, amounts to about 250,000 yen, and he gets a bonus of two months' pay twice a year for a yearly total of roughly 4 million yen ($34,000).
"It's kind of unfortunate it doesn't rise more, even though I'm working hard," he said.
From this sum he supports his wife, who works part-time to supplement their income, and a daughter who is just about to complete high school.
For recreation, he and some friends do yoga from YouTube videos, though he occasionally buys a one-day gym pass to take yoga classes.
"I'd have liked to have had another child, but the one has taken everything we have," he said.
He has little hope that Kishida's urging will change much.
"This kind of thing doesn't really reach people in places like me," he said. "Officials say a lot of things that don't really work out." ($1=118.3100 yen)
(Reporting by Elaine
Lies; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Translation
東京，3 月 16 日（路透社）- 日本會計師 Masamitsu 多年來沒有旅行或去看電影，也很少外出就餐。
另外，他用去了他的全部約34,000 美元的年薪養家糊口，年薪近十年來每年僅增長 4 美元。
這位 50 歲的人仕說： “我無法儲錢，我沒有為晚年儲蓄任何東西。我只能繼續工作” 。他拒絕透露自己的姓氏，因為他擔心會影響自己在一家從事活動策劃的小公司的工作。
“在我從這家公司退休後，我會做任何我能做的事情, 也許當個保安。”
Masamitsu 的困境反映了日本許多中小型企業工人的困境，日本 2020 年的平均工資為 38,515 美元，與 1990 年代相比變化不大，遠低於經濟合作與發展組織國家(OECD)的平均水平 49,165 美元。
首相岸田文雄敦促盈利公司在春季工資談判中提高工資，屆時藍籌股公司的管理層將與主要工會會面，商討來年確定工資，為大多數其他公司設定了指導方針。
今年的會談預計將於週三結束。
在職業學校接受會計培訓的Masamitsu,在 43 歲時在他的前雇主削減工資後換了工作，這對日本員工來說是一個相對不尋常的舉動。
經過一連串不成功的面試後，他感到很幸運能找到現在的工作，只是事先被告知在第一個十年中每年加薪僅為 500 日元（4.25 美元）。
他說：“考慮到我的年齡，基本工資實際上並不算太差，還有其他地方更低” ; “我被告知，10 年後每年會上漲 5,000 日元。”
Masamitsu 的月薪加上日本常見的津貼約為 250,000 日元，他每年兩次獲得兩個月工資的獎金，每年總計約 400 萬日元（34,000 美元）。
他說:“有點不幸的是，儘管我很努力，但它並沒有上升得更多”。
他用這筆錢供養了兼職工作以補充收入的妻子和一個即將讀完高中的女兒。
為了消遣，他和一些朋友在 YouTube 視頻中做瑜伽，不過他偶爾會購買一個单日健身房通行證來參加瑜伽課。
他說:“我本來希望再生一個孩子，但現有那個孩子已經用了我們所有的一切”。
他沒有祈望岸田的敦促會帶來大變化。
他說：“這種事情並沒有真正惠及到像我這樣處境的人” ; “官員們說了很多, 但沒有做出真正奏效的事情。”（1 美元 = 118.3100 日元）
So, it is sad
to know that Masamitsu's
plight mirrors many workers at small and medium-sized firms in Japan where the
average salary was $38,515 as at 2020, and the amount has almost no
change since the 1990s. It is well below the average of $49,165 in countries of
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
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