Major Japanese manufacturers offer pay hikes on COVID-19 recovery

Mitsubishi Electric Corp and Fujitsu Ltd said they will reward full-time workers with a 1,500 yen hike in monthly basic salary in the new fiscal year starting next month

Last of the big spenders.

Offering people 1500-3500円 ($12-25 USD) is joke. In the face of inflation, what are people suppose to do with an extra 3000 yen per month? At these large corporations where the higher ups earn ridiculous amounts of money yet the average worker can barely make ends meet. Its a complete joke and disrespectful to people working at these companies. Give people salaries that reflect the living cost of the times they live in. Living cost today compared to 30 years ago are completely different.

let me stay polite,its just so ...pathetic...is this right word for it?

I know more better one but yes,I will try to stay polite here...

Absolute joke of a raise !!!

Meanwhile the government has reduced pensions.

These are pitiful rises for normal times, and these are not normal times.

Government inflation figures are completely inaccurate (globally) for the 'everyday economy' of basics - food, transport, white goods and energy - which will see much higher increases. Wage rises will never cover price rises, as employers must increase prices to cover increased costs, overheads and wages. That is why inflation causes poverty and political instability. And why Japan should have celebrated deflation whilst it had it, rather than turning it into a bizarre political bogeyman. The alternative, for many, is much worse.

Even in Japan, expect to see substantial rises courtesy of fluvid, Putin, climate impacts and the end of globalisation. In the UK, which has a head start on the rest of the world when it comes to inflation courtesy of Brexit, energy bills are expected to rise as much as 300% and some food products may double in price within the next year. Inflation may rise from 0.75% today to 8% or more. And this is despite the UK having quite limited Russian dependencies as well as North Sea hydrocarbon reserves. In Germany the Green party are talking about increasing domestic coal production as preferable to Russian gas and oil. Globalisation operated for energy as for everything else, driving down costs. Ending globalisation will turbocharge rises in inflation.

One thing may need more analysis. We get stories of Japanese people getting richer having not spent during the pandemic. Then we get stories that suggest Japanese people are intent on buying ever smaller portions of the cheapest, lowest quality food they can. Obviously the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, but some numbers would be good. Is most of Japan still middle class? Non-consensual unemployment must be nearly zero there by now.