Fully prepare for the summer election! Japanese Prime Minister Shozo Kishida has issued a check, promising a 50% increase in wages by 2040.

Japanese Prime Minister Shuji Ishiba recently announced the core campaign promises for the upcoming summer House of Councillors election: to achieve a 50% increase in the average national income and to reach the target of 100 trillion yen (approximately 6.9 trillion USD) in economic output by 2040. As voters are set to judge the performance of the Ishiba Cabinet, the minority government leader told reporters in Tokyo on Monday: "I have instructed senior party officials to make these two targets the top campaign promises." At the time of this announcement, the Ishiba government is facing multiple challenges: following a disastrous defeat in the House of Representatives election last October, the current government must negotiate with the Trump administration to lower tariffs while also addressing high domestic inflation. Ishiba revealed that the basic principles of future economic policies will be announced this week, hoping to reach a consensus with the people on the vision of a "strong Japanese economy." Although the goal of reaching a nominal GDP of 100 trillion yen by 2040 was already proposed last year, this statement has brought it back into focus. To achieve a 50% wage increase by 2040, Japan's average annual wage needs to grow by about 2.74%, slightly higher than the recent nominal wage increase. Japan's nominal GDP peaked at 609 trillion yen in 2024. The Secretary-General of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Hiroyuki Moriyama, commented on Monday: "This is an ambitious goal that must be achieved." According to Japanese media reports on Tuesday, the Liberal Democratic Party is considering giving each citizen hundreds of dollars in cash before the summer election to cope with rising prices, and is currently discussing whether to set an income cap for recipients. Data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications at the end of May showed that Japan's core CPI rose by 3.5% year-on-year in April, accelerating from 3.2% the previous month, with rice prices soaring by 98.4% year-on-year to become the main catalyst the highest increase since records began in 1971. Ishiba and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Junichiro Koizumi have pledged to halve the price of rice to around 2,000 yen for 5 kilograms. Under Koizumi's leadership, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries bypassed the traditional supply chain to directly sell reserve rice to retailers at fixed prices. These measures seem to be showing initial effectiveness, with the latest surveys showing a rise in Ishiba's approval rating. A survey released by NHK on Monday showed a 6% increase to 39%, while an ANN survey also showed a 7% increase to 34%. In the NHK survey, 74% of respondents supported the proposal to sell reserve rice at fixed prices (not through auction).