Asiaman7 comments

Japan can’t catch a break. Three plus years of real wage decline. The rice distribution fiasco. And now massive tariffs! Where’s the relief?

Yesterday, it was reported that May 2025 real wages fell 2.9 percent!

That makes five consecutive months of real wage decline. According to the government’s own data, Japan has now recorded negative real wages in 34 of the past 38 months.

While there was a slight uptick in June, July, November, and December 2024 — largely due to companies paying out bonuses those months — wage increases continue to be consistently outpaced by rising prices.

How does the country get out of this downward spiral?

The most detailed article on this scam was published a week ago by the South China Morning Post. Contains a lot of insightful information.

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TOEIC fraud: Chinese student in Japan charged with cheating on English exams multiple times

Police accuse Wang Likun, 27, of posing as other students and using miniature microphones and smart glasses to feed answers to test-takers

Moderator: The URL will suffice.

KnightsOfCydonia

This story doesn’t make sense. TSCM are essentially a component manufacturer

On April 1, the Trump administration opened new investigations that could result in tariffs on semiconductors.

Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 allows the president to impose tariffs on goods deemed essential for national security. 

The semiconductor investigation will assess the national security impacts not only of chips, but also manufacturing equipment and so-called “derivative products” inducing wafers, legacy computer chips and components.

Supermarket prices fell for a fifth straight week, to 3,801 yen in the seven days to June 22,

the government has been releasing emergency rice from its stockpile to sell for about 2,000 yen per 5 kg. 

This matches what I observed throughout Tokyo this past week.

Shelves were stocked.

Older rice (Reiwa 4 (2022) & Reiwa 5 (2023)) was selling just below ¥2,000 per 5 kg bag.

Newer rice was between ¥3,700 and ¥4,500, depending on the brand.

The timelapse video below illustrates just how dramatically the water level rose in only 30 minutes. Had those 27 young girls at Camp Mystic been sleeping in cabins at 3:00 a.m. at the same elevation as the initial position of the people standing on the road in this footage, escape would have been virtually impossible.

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https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/06/us/video/timelapse-kingsland-texas-river-floodwater-levels-digvid

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In truth, if a disaster of this magnitude had been foreseen, the camp would never have been built in that location — it is essentially a death trap in the event of such a flood.

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This video provides of the scene at the camp: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/05/weather/video/texas-floods-summer-camp-mystic-ed-lavandera-digvid

What? Doesn't the National Weather Service have enough staff to handle accumulating the correct data to give the proper estimate of rain to fall? Oh, that's right ....I forgot ....

What about NOAA? Shouldn't they be monitoring the weather for extreme patterns so that they can coordinate with NWS? Oh, that's right .... I forgot ...

And where's FEMA to handle the recovery efforts? Oh, that's right .... I forgot ....

All true, but the water rose to deadly levels in only 45 minutes at 3:00 a.m. in a powerful dark storm of thunder and lightning. It would have been very challenging for staff likely not trained for such a disaster to anticipate this outcome and save the lives of those young children at Camp Mystic.

In fact, if this disaster could have been anticipated, that camp would never have been built because its basically a death trap in case of such a flood.

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This video provides more details: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/05/weather/video/texas-floods-summer-camp-mystic-ed-lavandera-digvid

I wonder why this young lad had not been vaccinated.

About 20 years ago, didn’t Japan make it compulsory for children to receive the measles vaccination?

Like claiming you’re addressing overtourism by drawing people from Asakusa to Harajuku.

Kyodo News obviously wanted to feature the impersonator and needed to tie him to a current issue to make the article relevant.

There are currently no tariffs on EU wine yet, but restaurants are gaslighting people and writers. Tariffs don’t go into effect until July 9th.

Not according to NPR.

It reports that the initially announced tariff of 20% on imports from the EU was reduced to 10% for a 90-day period.

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https://www.npr.org/2025/06/09/nx-s1-5425444/trump-tax-tariff-revenue-manufacturing-businesses

*The average monthly income of salaried households with at least two individuals grew a real, or inflation-adjusted, 0.4 percent to 522,318 yen, rising for the first time in five months, the ministry said.*

That ends four straight months of real wage decline. Hopefully, we’ll continue to see growth.

Last May, real wages fell 1.4% for the 26th consecutive month of decline. Since then, we’ve seen some slight improvement here and there, but for the most part, Japan’s pay hikes continue to be outpaced by rising prices. 

The government’s own data shows that Japan has recorded negative real wages for 33 of the last 38 months.

a restaurant group that takes pride in dishing up fresh local meat and produce has found itself having to raise prices on its menus.

"The reality is, we have to pass along some of those to our guests,"

The U.S. tariffs are basically a tax on U.S. consumers, as demonstrated above. The costs are just passed on.

If your job is not as a seishain and your wages have not improved, trying looking around for something better.

At every job you should be learning or earning.

Either is fine.

Both is best.

But if it’s neither, you should be making efforts for leaving.

Japan's average pay up over 5% for 2nd year in a row

Nice, but Japan’s pay hikes continue to be outpaced by rising prices.

Japan's real wages in April (the latest figures) fell 1.8 percent from a year earlier, marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline.

Japan has now seen negative real wages for 33 of the last 37 months, using the government’s own data.

Wasteful.

Includes $85 million to move one of the four space shuttles (Discovery) from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to Space Center Houston, which already has a full-scale replica of a space shuttle, to appease Texas Republican senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.

Ridiculous. Talk about waste and abuse!

Ishiba’s handling of economic woes at home and global challenges such as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war.

Japan should remain hesitate to any agreement until an appeals court hearing set for late July over the legality of the emergency authority Trump used to impose the so-called reciprocal tariffs.

Additionally, agreeing to a deal that doesn’t reduce or eliminate both the reciprocal tariffs and industry-specific duties might be received so poorly in Japan that it could topple the Ishiba government, which is facing a high-stakes election to the Japanese parliament’s upper house on July 20. Also, any deal that reduces Japanese protections for its domestic rice industry could also spell electoral trouble for the Ishiba government. 

Trump initially claimed trade deals would come easy. Japan is proving him wrong, even as Trump has suggested punitive measures, including a cap on the number of vehicles Japan could export to the U.S.

In April, Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior trade and manufacturing adviser, said the administration could land 90 deals in 90 days. Thus far, the administration has cut only a limited trade agreement with the U.K. and struck a tariff truce with China, and on Wednesday, Trump announced he had struck a deal with Vietnam.

Japan might be moving slowly to allow the development of Mitsubishi’s potential $8 billion U.S. shale acquisition of Aethon Energy Management, which has a substantial natural gas operation adjacent to the U.S. Gulf coast. 

If Mitsubishi used those U.S. shale assets to boost LNG exports to Japan, this would potentially narrow the trade deficit.

Of course, Trump might not want to hear this because, although he wants greater exports from the U.S., he doesn’t necessarily desire a foreign company based in the U.S. doing the exporting.

First, most Japanese (and foreign residents) would likely prefer domestic rice over U.S. rice. 

Second, Trump does have a point. According to CNN, a 2021 report published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative under former President Joe Biden stated that “Japan’s highly regulated and nontransparent system of importation and distribution for rice limits the ability of US exporters to have meaningful access to Japan’s consumers.”

Third, this is likely more about oil than rice. In the interview, Trump also said that Japan could purchase "a lot of oil" and other goods from the United States to reduce the trade deficit.

Honest question: how much away from normal was the total rainfall?

Tokyo, where the rainy season hasn’t officially ended, has recorded 100 mm of rain in June 2025, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The June average for Tokyo from 2010-2024 was 192 mm.

June 2025 will likely be Tokyo’s hottest June ever though.

Fentanyl: Trump’s go-to tool for trade leverage. Won’t work against Japan though. They’re laughing him off.

I’ve always found it noteworthy that such a large number of Japanese government-funded schools operate outside of Japan.

According to Google AI, there are currently 94 of these schools across 49 countries, serving approximately 16,000 students.

@WoodyLee

You should probably include that Nissan lost 670.9 billion yen for the fiscal year ended March.

And the combined remuneration for Nissan's current five executive officers was nearly 1.66 billion yen.

Additionally, the new president plans to more than double staff cuts to 20,000 people and close seven of its 17 vehicle plants.

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https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250528/p2g/00m/0bu/004000c#

*With Uchida also present at the meeting, shareholders repeatedly questioned his responsibility and expressed indignation at the lack of dividends in contrast to massive payouts to four former executives, including Uchida, for leaving top roles. However, Uchida declined to respond.*

Massive payouts to four executives including Uchida?

Shareholders must have felt ashamed and miserable to learn that something this outrageous was happening. The Nissan brand has been tarnished, the workers are demoralized, and trust for management has been lost.

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Uchida testifying as a witness for Nissan against Carlos Ghosn in 2021: “I felt ashamed and miserable when I learned that something this outrageous was happening. The Nissan brand was tarnished, the workers were demoralized, and trust for management has been lost.”

Regardless of this injunction, the Trump retreat is just days away from being announced.

Insider reports indicate he’s eagerly looking for a face-saving exit from a battle he wasn’t capable of winning outright.

Just another embarrassing loss after months of bloated false claims.

Blacklabel

Meh. Supreme Courts gets to embarrass yet another activist judge 6-3.

And when the Supreme Court rules against the president, you complain about them being “unelected.”

Noem, without providing evidence, accused the university of "fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party."

Three key words: without providing evidence.

"First, (foreigners) have to fulfill their obligations as human beings and then we can teach them their rights," said one woman.

Given that being human precedes nationality, would a foreigner’s obligations as a human being be fundamentally different from anyone else’s?

Wasn’t Akio Toyoda unanimously elected a few days ago to lead the Japan Sumo Federation?

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https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250614/p2g/00m/0sp/036000c

Japan sets 1% wage growth target

Sounds good until you remember the Bank of Japan has a 2% inflation target.

So, in effect, the government target is a real salary decrease of 1% a year.

That’s rather depressing when you think about it.

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https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/japans-largest-opposition-calls-lowering-bojs-inflation-target-2025-06-10/

sakurasuki

1.06 million annual income just being replaced with 20 hours/week threshold

True.

Why can’t this article report that fact?

By not including it, the article gives the false impression that part-time workers will no longer be able to curb their work hours to avoid having to contribute to employment pension plans.

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Better explanation at the Yomiuri link below.

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/politics-government/20241109-221585/#

Didn’t Japan Today (this site!) report last month that this event was predicted in a 1999 comic book? 

Oh, I see. The 2011 earthquake/tsunami was predicted in the 1999 comic “The Future I Saw,” and the 2025 earthquake/tsunami was predicted in the 2021 addendum “The Future I Saw: The Complete Edition.”