According to a recent government survey, 63.2% of respondents said they did not feel financially secure in Japan and had a negative outlook for the future.
According to a Cabinet Office poll, the percentage of people who experienced financial stress in 2023 rose by 0.7 points from the previous year due to soaring prices.
This result is the worst since 2008, when questions about reasons for dissatisfaction were added to the survey to gauge people's economic and social attitudes.
A photo of the building housing the Cabinet Office taken in Tokyo on March 31, 2022. (Joint)
The latest poll was mailed to 3,000 people over the age of 18 and received valid responses from 57.1%.
According to the November-December survey, 28.6% cited “the difficulty of raising children,'' followed by 28.2% who cited “difficult for young people to become independent.''
It was also found that 26.2% felt that it was difficult for women to play an active role in society, and 25.8% were dissatisfied with the work environment.
When asked about the areas in which Japan is heading in a negative direction, the inflation rate was the most popular at 69.4%, with a large percentage of people expressing concern about the economy.
Japan's core consumer prices rose by 3.1% in 2023, the fastest pace in 41 years. In contrast, real wages fell by 2.5% in the same year, the second consecutive year of decline, as government figures showed that salary increases were not keeping pace with inflation.
Another private opinion poll conducted in November found that 46.1% of full-time workers in dual-income households in the world's fourth-largest economy said they were experiencing financial difficulties.
According to a survey by Mynavi, a job information company, the average annual household income of people on a tight budget is 7.12 million yen ($47,000), while the annual household income of people who don't feel stressed is 8.78 million yen.
The internet survey targeted full-time male and female employees between the ages of 20 and 59, and received 3,000 valid responses.
On the bright side, a Cabinet Office poll found that 25.1% of respondents said that medical and welfare services are heading in the right direction. Other areas in which respondents said they were improving were disaster prevention (24.1%) and public safety (18.6%).
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