The Abe administration will raise the minimum wage by 3 percent each year starting next fiscal year as part of a package of policies aimed at strengthening consumer spending and stoking economic growth.
The administration will also strengthen policies to get more women into the workforce and ease regulations to encourage corporate investment and breathe new life into an economy that has struggled with patchy domestic demand.
The policies are a positive development for the Bank of Japan, because it could lead to move private consumption and make it easier to guide inflation to its 2 percent price target.