Japan's population has been shrinking for 15 years, with huge implications for the country's economy, national defense, and culture. Now, policymakers are working to boost birth rates.

In 2024, 720,988 babies were born in the country, marking the ninth consecutive year of decline in child births.

Using prefectural data, we study the potential impact on wage dynamics of the planned minimum wage increase policy in Japan. Our main result is that stepping up minimum wage growth from 2 to the ...

Japan has been struggling to cope with a combination of anaemic economic growth and a shrinking population for over 30 years. 2025 marks the tipping point when the rising costs outstrip the country's ...

Japan's inflation-adjusted real wages in March fell 2.5% from a year earlier, marking declines for 24 straight months, labor ministry data showed on Thursday. The pace of declines accelerated from ...

Japanese real wages decreased for a third consecutive month in March, squeezed by relentless inflation although consumer ...

A meaningful and sustainable rise in wages is a key goal for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, while the Bank of Japan says it’s a crucial factor for normalizing monetary policy. Real wages ...

The Japanese government is likely to establish 1% growth in real wages as its first-ever official target for pay increases, a ...

The government will set a goal of reaching 1% annual gains in real wages by the fiscal year starting in April 2029, according to a policy draft by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s new capitalism ...

The mixed wage and spending data highlights Japan's challenging growth outlook, as the export-reliant economy faces tariff threats and uncertainty over monetary policy. Economists are expecting to ...