Japan to lose pay appeal for Vietnamese, Indonesian workers by 2032: study

Stagnant Japanese wages risk making Southeast Asians look elsewhere for jobs

20221128N Japan technical intern

Vietnamese technical interns work at a construction site in Tokyo. (Photo by Ken Kobayashi)

ATSUSHI TOMIYAMA, principal economist, Japan Center for Economic Research

TOKYO -- Japan's stagnant wages risk making the country unattractive to Southeast Asian and Chinese workers by the early 2030s, a new analysis by the Japan Center for Economic Research shows.

The JCER study compares wages earned by factory workers in China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand with the money a foreign national would receive through Japan's government-sponsored technical training program.

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