During his inaugural policy speech in both chambers of the Diet on Oct. 4, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba referred to wage hikes and labor shortages, pledging to realize pay increases exceeding inflation by raising each worker’s productivity, added value and income toward a positive cycle of pay raises and mitigation of understaffing.

This is a good start to improve the lives of what workers exist right now in the workforce. However, with an ever declining and aging population I don’t know if this will be a long term fix for the country. Japanese corporate work culture is famously toxic to the growth of families with obligatory overtime. Even fixing overnight this will leave a generational gap of 20 to 30 years. In that time without replacement workers from somewhere will further damage national economy making a recovery more difficult if/when the population recovers.

He also vowed to promote an improved environment for small to midsize businesses to increase wages.

Some substance around this would be helpful. Does that mean tax breaks? Government subsidies?

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Will someone please think of the companies!!!