According to a survey, the average annual income of Japanese people is lower than that of Koreans. Why are Japanese people so low? Some Japanese bricks believe that "diligence and seriousness" may be the reason. What does this mean...
According to a survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the average annual income of Japanese people in 2019 was US$38,617. As usual, it is well below developed countries such as the United States ($65,836) and Germany ($53,638) and is overtaken by neighboring South Korea ($42,285).
Speaking of South Korea, it is well known that the gap between the rich and the poor is very large, as if group rule is still strong. The problem of youth unemployment is even more serious than that of Japan. It is reported that the number of unemployed people increased after raising the minimum wage in 2018, with the highest number of unemployed people since 1999.
In fact, even if the Japanese are poorer than the Koreans, in such a severe economic environment, many people will probably not accept it immediately. Some people may try to escape from reality, saying "this investigation is nonsense" and "Japanese wealth cannot be measured by numbers."
Unfortunately, however, this is a US dollar conversion survey using purchasing power parity, taking into account all the impacts of exchange rate and price, as mentioned earlier, the Korean economy is also full of problems, so Japanese can maintain their self-esteem by "although the wages are low, but better than South Korea." However, even so, the fact that "Japan is poor" cannot be changed.
What makes people curious is why Japan has become so poor. As you know, various analyses have been conducted on the reasons for the Japanese economic downturn, including long-term deflation , consumption tax hike, population decline, Abenomics failure, and even further, Koizumi's reform is not good. Each of these theories has its own reasons and is reasonable.
However, many people are beginning to believe that the Japanese are quite guilty of the “most hardworking people in the world” that they recognize and others in the essential part of affecting all causes. I think some people may be offended by this statement, but this article does not object to the "Japanese hard work" for the time being, which is a virtue that should be proud of.
Even if they are black workers, in order to do their job well, they will work overtime or have a holiday without hesitation. The undeniable fact is that these hard-working workers support the foundation of Japan's economy.
On the other hand, diligence and seriousness have great side effects. The Japanese are good at completing assigned tasks faithfully and executing orders firmly, but their minds are stiff, so they cannot change their reactions when problems arise. They can’t take a flexible stand, fundamentally re-examine the rules and regulations, or simply stop what they have been doing for a long time.
For example, people have been worrying about "working from home" in the months since the coronavirus pandemic! I often hear the saying "Japan has finally ushered in the DX wave!", but there are still many companies in Japan who still stamp paper documents and paste paper receipts to check out. This is the reason why
is because Japanese businessmen are diligent. Until now, I have followed the rules too seriously and have no dissatisfaction. On the contrary, introducing new systems can cause major trouble, such as Ruisui Bank 's ATM, so the risk of "not changing" is less. The more diligent and serious the organization's people are, the easier it is to think, "If something happens, who will be responsible?"
What I want to say is that the side effect of this "most diligent in the world" is that it gradually puts Japan into poverty. The strongest and most obvious example of this negative spiral is the "industrial structure of Japan."
There is no need to explain why Japan's wages are very low even in developed countries. The reason why Japan's wages have remained too low is that companies have not raised their wages excessively.
is taken for granted, but in capitalist society , "salary increase" is taken for granted. If the company grows, it will give back to its employees. As a result, the economy will flourish and the prosperity of the entire country will improve. In fact, if you look at developed countries outside Japan and emerging countries that are achieving economic growth, wages are rising properly.
So why can’t Japanese companies do such natural things? There are individual cases such as "deflation cannot grow" and "corporate taxes are too high", but overall, there is no doubt that there are too many small businesses. Of the approximately 4.21 million Japanese companies, 99.7% are small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises, and about 70% of workers work here.
Small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises will inevitably have lower salaries. In addition, cash flow is difficult to start, and the company's scale does not allow us to focus on exports or R&D, so we inevitably end up with an old-fashioned business model and the current way of making money. As the population declines, domestic demand shrinks, and wages cannot be increased.
In this way, when Japan's "over-low wages" are obviously caused by "the industrial structure of too many small and medium-sized enterprises", why is this unbalanced industrial structure very strange? In fact, "the world's most diligent" participates in it.
