Photo/Illutration Members of the National Confederation of Trade Unions demand a uniform national minimum wage at a rally outside the labor ministry in January. (Takashi Narazaki)

Calls are growing among local assemblies to unify minimum wages across the country to arrest outflows of rural populations.

A record 80 prefectural and municipal assemblies adopted statements supporting a uniform national minimum wage in 2023, according to figures compiled by the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren).

The number of such assemblies began to increase in 2020 and totaled 164 over four years through 2023, the confederation found.

Many of those assemblies are in rural areas. For example, they include 20 of the 25 municipalities in Akita Prefecture and 36 of the 77 municipalities in Nagano Prefecture.

The city assembly of Yokote in Akita Prefecture adopted a statement for a uniform national minimum wage in 2023 following one issued the previous year.

The statement, approved by a majority vote of 21-3, represents the sense of crisis about population drains shared by many local representatives.

Among the nation’s 47 prefectures, Akita has recorded the largest rate of population decrease for 10 consecutive years.

Yokote, the second-largest city in the northern prefecture, has seen its population dwindle to 82,000, down from 100,000 in 2005.

The hourly minimum wage in Akita Prefecture is 897 yen ($6), 216 yen lower than in Tokyo.

“It is natural (for young people) to move to Tokyo if the pay is better,” said Tadashi Sugawara, a Yokote city assembly member. “We are losing more and more people who can support our community because there is so much difference from city life.”

A uniform national minimum wage has been advocated mainly by Zenroren and the Japanese Communist Party, which closely works with the confederation, but the statements for a uniform rate are supported by local assembly members across party lines.

Minimum wages are revised annually based on guidelines that a labor ministry council sets for prefectures categorized into three groups.

When they were revised in October, the nationwide weighted average came to 1,004 yen, exceeding the 1,000-yen mark for the first time.

Minimum wages range between 1,113 yen in Tokyo, the highest in the country, and 893 yen in Iwate Prefecture, the lowest.

While prefectural minimum wages are above 1,000 yen in Tokyo and seven other prefectures, they are below 900 yen in 12 prefectures.

Proponents of a uniform national minimum wage emphasize that the cost of living is about the same in urban and rural areas.

About 250,000 yen is necessary in monthly living expenses for a 25-year-old man living alone both in Tokyo’s Kita Ward and Kochi, and about 253,000 yen in Mito, according to a report compiled by the Japan Research Institute of Labor Movement in February 2023.

Researchers said commodity prices are basically the same because chain stores are found nationwide whereas greater costs are needed to maintain vehicles in rural areas.

However, small businesses would be hard hit and could be forced into bankruptcy if minimum wages in rural prefectures were substantially raised to achieve a uniform rate.

About 80 percent of small and midsize enterprises surveyed by the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2021 were opposed to unifying minimum wages.

A survey released in February found that more than 60 percent of small and midsize enterprises said the current minimum wages are a burden for their management.

A senior labor ministry official said, “Rapid changes create distortions,” indicating the government’s cautiousness about introducing a uniform national minimum wage.

Few countries have different regional minimum wages. Except for Japan, Canada is the only member of the Group of Seven industrialized economies that has such a system.

Related News