January 11, 2026
Akahata editorial (excerpts)
The results of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s survey on household living conditions in 2024 showed that 58.9% of respondents found their living conditions “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult”. In particular, the percentage of “very difficult” replies increased by 1.5 percentage points to 28% from the previous year.
A major reason why people are struggling to make ends meet is that wages are failing to keep pace with inflation. In November 2025, the consumer price index rose 2.9% year-on-year, marking the 51st consecutive month of increase. In contrast, inflation-adjusted real wages dropped 2.8% from a year earlier, an 11th straight monthly decline.
During the last three decades, annual real wages fell by as much as 750,000 yen to 3.7 million yen in 2024 after peaking at 4.45 million yen in 1996.
While workers’ wages remain stagnant, large corporations are hoarding a huge amount of internal reserves. This is shown in the government data. According to the Finance Ministry’s corporate statistics for the July-September quarter of FY 2025, internal reserves of large corporations with capital of one billion yen or more reached a record high of 581 trillion yen, up 5% from the same period last year.
When looking at the labor share, the portion of corporate value added paid to workers, by business size, in 2024, it was 75.6% for small- and mid-sized enterprises and only 37.4% for large businesses.
In order to correct the excessive exploitation by greedy capitalists and foster sound economic development, the need is to achieve substantial wage hikes and to cut working hours dramatically.
The results of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s survey on household living conditions in 2024 showed that 58.9% of respondents found their living conditions “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult”. In particular, the percentage of “very difficult” replies increased by 1.5 percentage points to 28% from the previous year.
A major reason why people are struggling to make ends meet is that wages are failing to keep pace with inflation. In November 2025, the consumer price index rose 2.9% year-on-year, marking the 51st consecutive month of increase. In contrast, inflation-adjusted real wages dropped 2.8% from a year earlier, an 11th straight monthly decline.
During the last three decades, annual real wages fell by as much as 750,000 yen to 3.7 million yen in 2024 after peaking at 4.45 million yen in 1996.
While workers’ wages remain stagnant, large corporations are hoarding a huge amount of internal reserves. This is shown in the government data. According to the Finance Ministry’s corporate statistics for the July-September quarter of FY 2025, internal reserves of large corporations with capital of one billion yen or more reached a record high of 581 trillion yen, up 5% from the same period last year.
When looking at the labor share, the portion of corporate value added paid to workers, by business size, in 2024, it was 75.6% for small- and mid-sized enterprises and only 37.4% for large businesses.
In order to correct the excessive exploitation by greedy capitalists and foster sound economic development, the need is to achieve substantial wage hikes and to cut working hours dramatically.
