The explanation is in the original article (not Gamespot):
> The hefty pay hike comes amid calls by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for Japanese companies to pay workers more as inflation takes hold in an economy used to years of deflation and stagnant wages, and as Japan prepares for its annual spring round of labour negotiations.
> "It's important for our long-term growth to secure our workforce," Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa told an earnings briefing.
> For companies that can afford to do so, higher salaries may also help them attract talent as a falling birth rate and low immigration leave Japan with serious labour shortages.
Basically, hiring is harder in Japan, companies are adjusting in order to attract talent. In the US, companies made the mistake of hiring too much, and doesn't suffer from the same problem, so different solution needed.
> calls by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for Japanese companies to pay workers more as inflation takes hold
So the prime minister wants to fight a phenomenon caused (in large part) by a wage price spiral by calling for accelerating the wage price spiral... we're in for a fascinating macro-economic/political landscape these next couple years...
Japan’s current inflated prices are more visible on gas and electricity which increased by 25~30% in just a few months, and are planned to increase again in the summer.
The PM is basically asking companies to foot the bill for energy costs, which have little to do with wages.
Imported goods have been directly affected by the usd/eur/jpy exchange rate, so yes they rose too. Exchange rate has been slightly going down, so there’s a modicum of hope in this regard.
So, 4% incrises in average prices cause by the sour of gas prices and comoditiess, means employees cause the inflation.
Or b what he wants is the distribution of the Cost of being share between companies and employees.
The inflation Japan is experiencing has not been caused in large part by a wage price spiral. It has largely been caused by US and Japanese monetary policy being out of sync.
Cost of raw material going up (largely due to moving resource extraction away from slave labor) is a much bigger driver of inflation than wages. If 10% of a product's price is to pay for the overhead of personnel costs, a 10% wage increase only increases the price of the product 1%.
> The hefty pay hike comes amid calls by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for Japanese companies to pay workers more as inflation takes hold in an economy used to years of deflation and stagnant wages, and as Japan prepares for its annual spring round of labour negotiations.
> "It's important for our long-term growth to secure our workforce," Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa told an earnings briefing.
> For companies that can afford to do so, higher salaries may also help them attract talent as a falling birth rate and low immigration leave Japan with serious labour shortages.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/nintendo-trims-annual-pro...
Basically, hiring is harder in Japan, companies are adjusting in order to attract talent. In the US, companies made the mistake of hiring too much, and doesn't suffer from the same problem, so different solution needed.