Japan's average minimum hourly pay has been raised by 66 yen to a record 1,121 yen ($7.6) for fiscal 2025 starting in April, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier, amid rising living costs, the labor ministry said Friday.The sharpest year-on-year increase comes as Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's government pushes for wage hikes that outpace inflation, which has squeezed household budgets in recent years.But the rise still falls short of the 7.3 percent average growth necessary every year until fiscal 2029 to meet the government's target of lifting the minimum hourly pay to 1,500 yen by the end…READ FULL ARTICLE
