Major Japanese firms expect FY2023 net profit to rise 4% to record high

Will employees wage increase? Or those companies just complain about labor shortage without really increasing salary at all?

Major Japan firms expect FY2023 net profit to rise 4% to record high

Another year of record profits for the Japan Inc./LDP combine; another year of stagnant wages and lower living atandards for the workers.

How many decades does it take to wake up to the reality of neo-feudalism?

Record-high profits among a severe labor shortage. What's the best economic strategy in such an environment? According to corporate Japan and the government, the solution is to bring in significant numbers of workers from developing countries so that real wages in Japan stay suppressed rather than rise in line with corporate earnings. The result is holding back economic growth, which after all is mostly driven by consumer spending.

There you have it: Rich corporations. Poorer working people. Moribund economy. And, don't forget the corporate tax cut on top of higher taxes paid by consumers.

That's not my opinion. That's what's actually happening.

Well, it's about time. If we can just keep the geopolitical situation from blowing up, Japan might dig itself out of the slump.

Profiting is easy when you have 60% of your staff on low paying part time or short term contracts as well as people doing 100+ hours of unpaid overtime every month. Japan in a nutshell, it’s all about the bottom line and those who suffer to make it are irrelevant.

And the workers are seeing very little if no pay increase and minimal if not zero bonus increase if they lucky enough to get one.

I agree with all of the above comments and would like to know who the hell is downvoting everyone. There is no way you can be living and working in Japan and feel that wages and working conditions are getting better, all the while corporations are raking in record profits!

What does this really mean though? Japanese exporters will obviously be earning more yen if they are selling overseas in USD or other currencies that are stronger than the yen. For the average person in Japan it means nothing. A paper victory.

I really hope this means wages, productivity, and work life balance get better too.

Great news for Japan since Japan’s GDP growth rate, 1.075%, was the worst in 2022 among G7.

Hope the salaries will increase accordingly.

Well Japan Inc, if want to completely lose the domestic market you are well on the way. Already many domestic companies have exited all kinds of electronic goods, for example. People here have no money. Now you can focus on the overseas market, Japan Inc. Good job! But don't expect any consumer loyality within the country when times turn bad, since you keep on screwing them over.

corporate net profit is increasing but household income seems to be in the low due to inflation from weak JPY

. People here have no money.

 but household income seems to be in the low due to inflation from weak JPY

Really?

Japanese household assets rose 4.5 percent from a year earlier to a record 2,023 trillion yen ($17 trillion) at the end of December,

Please calm down a bit and read it again, they are expected to whatever in this fiscal year, it’s a projection, and so on. That doesn’t already mean that they really have earned the big money and can bath in that pool of banknotes due to real profits. Those news without substance are addressed to the public, for gaining more confidence and optimism and working moral, they of course don’t reflect any real economic parameters or current situation.

@Sven Asai

"on course to log a record profit for the third consecutive year"

The two previous years are not "projections"...current projections are based on quarterly sales comparisons which are more likely than not to follow the previous two years in terms of outcomes

But don't expect any consumer loyality within the country when times turn bad, since you keep on screwing them over.

That's what we think after every labelling scandal and every shrinkflation, but just keeping sticking "Kokusan" on everything and tell them it is safe and they will keep buying. Loyalty extends far beyond reason or experience.

When I go into my local combini and increasingly any other big foreign corporations doing business in Japan, I meet Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians,Nepalese etc

I know foreigners crushing boxes as no Japanese wants to start work at 5am for 1000 yen an hour.

Strange that product prices are on the rise-wages are not-companies raking in record profits?

The LDP has a plan to destroy its own people and it’s in effect now…

@JeffLee

Japan ranks 2nd on the planet in terms of consumer spending. Per capita spending has gradually increased during these 3 decades of stagnation from $10,000 per annum in 1980 to $18,999 in 2021.

15,439 in 1990

If the public utility companies are included in this "record profits" , there should be protests in the streets and a general strike by all workers across all industries! There is no need to raise rates, as much as over 40% in some areas, and be reporting record profits!

I know foreigners crushing boxes as no Japanese wants to start work at 5am for 1000 yen an hour.

Japanese down here would be doing it! 1,000 an hour is almost 50 yen an hour higher than the minimum wage here. Try to think of Japan besides Tokyo!

"Japanese down here would be doing it! 1,000 an hour is almost 50 yen an hour higher than the minimum wage here. Try to think of Japan besides Tokyo!"

￥1000 is the standard hourly rate for unskilled, manual labour in Tokyo.

"JeffLee 07: 04am.........that posts nails it."

Not quite...as consumer spending has gradually increase over the past 3 decades

Those hoping that the higher profits will be passed down to working and middle classes to improve the general standard of living will be disappointed. The Japanese government along with governments in most advanced democracies are controlled by the very wealthy, billionaires and corporate interests - those people do not want a large and thriving middle class - they want everybody to be poor and struggling apart from themselves with nothing in between. That will not be changed through the ballot box - the only way it will be changed is through unionization, industrial action, strikes, civil disobedience and even riots in the streets! That's how it was achieved in the 20th century and that is the only way it will be achieved in the future.

Record profits in Yen, not so much in USD. The real profit, tied with real purchasing power, is likely weaker. Like the REER of Japan just came back to 1970 level.

@Septim Dynasty

wrote: "Record profits in Yen, not so much in USD. The real profit, tied with real purchasing power, is likely weaker. Like the REER of Japan just came back to 1970 level."

Profits are profits...and record profits are a good thing regardless of the decade

rise 4% to record high

4% as measured in what unit? How much was the inflation last year? Could it be that it was actually record low in inflation adjusted numbers?

@Fredrik

The inflation rate for the past 3 years:

2023: 2.73%

2022: 2.5%

2021: — 0.24%

Lets hope currency holds up profits.

Or can you be more social globally.

2023: 2.73%

2022: 2.5%

2021: — 0.24%

Whoever gave you these stats is a liar. Hopefully it's not some official source. This is a shocking attempt to downplay the rate of inflation here. "Lies, damned lies and statistics."

If larger corporation are raking in large profits and the government continue to complain about low birthrates those in Japan will be celebrating the large immigrant population that will be taking the jobs normal japanese will not take and pay taxes. The government will push for this because they need the taxes to sustain the country. Their is a reason why these companies don't hire full time workers to avoid paying benefits. They hire immigrants and pay the lower wages which they don't consider paper reported profit.