Japan’s real wages rise 1.4% in May, marking fifth straight monthly growth

Japan’s inflation-adjusted real wages increased by 1.4 percent year-on-year in May, marking the fifth consecutive month of growth, according to labor ministry data released on Tuesday, Qazinform News Agency cites Jiji Press. The increase was driven by solid gains in nominal wages and a slower pace of consumer price inflation following the removal of the provisional gasoline tax surcharge. The consumer price index, excluding imputed rent, which is used to calculate real wages, rose 1.7 percent in May. This represented a significant slowdown from the 4.0 percent increase recorded a year earlier, reflecting the impact of the scrapped gasoline tax surcharge and lower rice prices. Preliminary data from the labor ministry, covering businesses with five or more employees, showed that nominal wages, including base salaries and overtime pay, rose 3.2 percent from a year earlier to an average of 311,165 yen. This marked the fourth straight month of wage growth exceeding 3 percent. Regular pay, which mainly consists of base salaries, climbed 3.0 percent year-on-year to an average of 275,942 yen.