Japanese households are finding it harder than ever to make ends meet as wages fail to keep pace with rising prices
\n Tokyo, Japan
\nIn Tomoko Ida\u2019s household, rice is on the menu less often than it used to be.
\nIda, a 48-year-old graphic designer and mother of two who lives in Tokyo, finds it difficult to justify eating Japanese rice on a daily basis amid soaring prices for the food staple.
\n\u201cI remember that a few years ago, 5kg (11lbs) of rice cost around 3,000 yen ($19), but now it costs about 4,000 to 5,000 yen ($25 to $32),\u201d Ida told Al Jazeera.
\n\u201cMy family consumes about 10kg (22lbs) of rice every month, and now we have no choice but to eat pasta or noodles a few times a week to save rice,\u201d she said.
\nIda is among millions of Japanese voters for whom rising living costs are the top concern in Sunday\u2019s general election, which pits Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi\u2019s Liberal Democratic Party-led (LDP) coalition against the opposition Centrist Reform Alliance.
\nFor average Japanese people, making ends meet has become more difficult over the past year amid the persistent failure of wages to keep pace with rising prices.
\nInflation-adjusted wages fell 2.8 percent in November, the 11th straight month of decline in people\u2019s pay cheques, according to Japanese government statistics.
\nWhile Japan\u2019s overall rate of inflation hovers at about 2 to 3 percent, the price of food has been rising much faster.
\nRice prices soared nearly 68 percent last year, the result of shortages caused by a poor harvest in 2023.
\nPrices of imported foods, such as coffee and chocolate, have also risen sharply due to the weak yen, which has sapped consumers\u2019 purchasing power.
\n\u201cI went to a department store to buy some British tea as a treat, but it was over one and a half times the price from a few years ago, so I decided not to buy it,\u201d Nao Hanaoka, a 29-year-old IT consultant in Tokyo, told Al Jazeera.
\n\u201cLast year, I had plans to travel overseas for a conference, but the weak yen made it impossible to pay the conference fees,\u201d Hanaoka added.
\nIn a survey carried out by public broadcaster NHK last month, 45 percent of respondents said that measures to reduce prices would be the most important factor in their vote.
\n\u201cPrices are going up without tangible increases in income, so people feel that even basic necessities are getting harder to afford,\u201d Koichi Nakano, an associate professor of political science at Sophia University in Tokyo, told Al Jazeera.
\nAlong with rising prices, \u201chigher taxes and social security contributions in an ageing society with more spending commitments\u201d have put households under growing strain, Nakano said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Focus on policies that improve our lives\u2019
\nPrime Minister Takaichi, a staunch conservative who is seeking to shore up her mandate less than four months after becoming Japan\u2019s first female leader, has put the cost of living at the forefront of her election campaign.
\nTakaichi, an advocate of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe\u2019s policy of ultra-loose monetary policy and big spending to reverse Japan\u2019s longstanding economic stagnation, has promised to suspend the country\u2019s 8 percent tax on food and non-alcoholic beverages for two years if her coalition is returned to power.
\nThe Japanese leader\u2019s tax pledge follows the approval last year of Japan\u2019s largest stimulus package since the COVID-19 pandemic, a 21.3 trillion yen ($136bn) injection into the economy heavily focused on cost-of-living relief measures, including energy bill subsidies, cash handouts and food vouchers.
\nTakaichi\u2019s economic plans have raised concerns about the sustainability of Japan\u2019s finances on her watch, particularly overseas, amid a rapidly ageing society and a debt-to-GDP ratio of 230 percent, the highest among advanced economies.
\nAfter Takaichi unveiled her plan to cut the consumption tax while announcing the dissolution of the lower house of parliament last month in preparation for elections, foreign investors rushed to sell off Japanese government bonds, sending yields to record highs.
\nJapanese voters, too, reacted to Takaichi\u2019s plan to cut the consumption tax with scepticism amid questions about how the government would cover the estimated cost of some 10 trillion yen ($63.7bn).
\nIn an opinion poll published by The Nikkei newspaper last month, more than half of respondents said they did not believe the consumption tax pause would effectively address rising prices.
\nIn recent campaign appearances, Takaichi has notably avoided any mention of her pledge.
\n\u201cSanae Takaichi changes her stance so quickly that she\u2019s untrustworthy,\u201d said Hanaoka, the IT consultant, who plans to vote for the Centrist Reform Alliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Japanese households are finding it harder than ever to make ends meet as wages fail to keep pace with rising prices Tokyo, Japan In Tomoko Ida\u2019s household, rice is on the menu less often than it used to be. Ida, a 48-year-old graphic designer and mother of two who lives in Tokyo, finds it difficult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-530112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n