The House of Councilors Budget Committee is holding public hearings to hear opinions from experts regarding the new fiscal year's budget proposal, and experts recommended by each party are giving their opinions on issues such as wage increases and inequality.
Of these, Wakana Shuto, a professor at Rikkyo University's Faculty of Economics, who was nominated by the Liberal Democratic Party, said of the wage increase, ``Japan's problem is that wage increases have not kept pace with increases in labor productivity over the past 20 years. In order to achieve this, it is essential to improve the incomes of a wide range of people, but workers' voice and bargaining power are decreasing.In order to steadily increase wages at small and medium-sized enterprises, it is necessary to rebuild labor-management relations. "
Furthermore, Mari Osawa, a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo who was recommended by the Constitutional Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party, commented on the issue of disparity by saying, ``If you look at the trends in the real annual income of regular employees and non-regular employees, it is not that they are declining for regular employees. At major companies, wages are gradually increasing.On the other hand, even though the number of non-regular workers has increased, improvements in the treatment of non-regular workers have been slow.While it is important to push for wage increases, it is important to eliminate the disparity between regular and non-regular workers. Equal pay for work of equal value is an effective means of achieving this."