Kishida Pledges to Raise Wages

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed his resolve on Wednesday to encourage wage hikes as part of his signature policy of creating a "new form of capitalism."

He also emphasized that his government will do all it can to regain trust after a statistics-tampering scandal at the infrastructure ministry, Jiji Press said.

 "I will work to pull up each citizen's income by creating an environment for raising wages," Kishida said at the plenary session of the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, in response to questions by political party leaders on his policy speech delivered on Monday.

Noting progress in his efforts to expand a tax system benefiting companies that raise employees' wages, the prime minister said that he will "work on raising household incomes, with a focus on youths and child-rearing generations."

He also pledged to review minimum wages in Japan, in order to raise the national weighted average to above 1,000 yen as soon as possible.