Japanese Workers See Biggest Pay Gain In Quarter Century

Early last month, I asked if the "permafrost" was finally thawing in Japan. Fast Retailing had announced planned wage increases of up to 40%, in what Reuters optimistically called "clear" evidence that Japan's notoriously stagnant pay growth "may be starting to budge after decades of deflation and cost-cutting." This sounds like a terribly dull debate, but it matters immensely in the macro context, and it's especially relevant in 2023 amid widespread speculation that the Bank of Japan may jett