Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, comments
I'm not sure he's making the point he thinks he is with the comment above. The idea is that jobs growth and tightening of labour market conditions should spur wage growth but that in itself has yet to materialise in a significant manner if you look at Japan's jobless rate, which is at the lowest since the 1990's.
Even looking at the jobs-to-applicants ratio (below), the story is still the same. It highlights increasing labour shortage in the economy with 163 positions available for every 100 job seekers but despite tight conditions it is not translating into meaningful growth in wages and in turn, inflationary pressures.
That said, labour shortage is another problem for Japanese authorities as they seek to deal with an aging and declining population that is leading to labour market conditions not seen since the 1970's.
