(Source from Reuters/Alamy)Japan has been reversed by South Korea in the real and minimum wage sectors, and nominal wages are also likely to be caught up soon, according to an analysis.

As Japan’s wage stagnation continued for decades, the gap with South Korea, which was more than twice as different from about 20 years ago, has disappeared, and it has been a long time since the wage levels of the two countries have changed.

Japan’s leading right-wing journalist Sankei Shimbun reported on the 11th that Korea’s real wage has already surpassed Japan in 2013 and is 10% higher as of last year,

citing average dollar deposit statistics based on the OECD’s purchasing power evaluation.

The OECD’s purchasing power evaluation statistics refer to real wages excluding the effects of price fluctuations, and are different from nominal wages expressed in monetary units.

In the case of nominal wages, Japan is still slightly ahead, but the prevailing interpretation is that it will be reversed soon.

Sankei pointed out that the gap between the two countries was more than doubled in 2001 when the nominal wage per capita was converted into dollars for Japan at 37,165 dollars and Korea at 15,736 dollars, but it has become almost the same recently.

It also diagnosed that Japan is slightly higher in terms of the recent exchange rate, but it is not strange to be reversed at any time.

The minimum wage as well as the real wage is high in Korea. Korea’s minimum wage in 2023 is 976 yen (9,620 won), while Japan’s minimum wage in 2022 (average of the nation) is 961 yen.

In Korea, there is also a weekly holiday allowance that requires an additional day’s allowance to employees who work 15 hours a week.

If the weekly holiday allowance is added together, Korea’s expected minimum wage will soar to 1,173 yen (about 11,544 won) as of 2023.

This exceeds Tokyo, which has the highest minimum wage in Japan (1072 yen as of 2022).

(Source from Reuters/Alamy)The wage reversal between the two countries is due to the fact that Japan’s average wage has not increased over the past 30 years.

Sankei pointed out that the wage ranking, which used to be the top among advanced countries in the past, has now fallen to the bottom.

Japan’s unique employment practices, such as low corporate productivity and lifetime employment, are mentioned as the background of the long-term stagnant wages.

In addition to wages, Korea’s reversal of Japan was notable in areas such as nominal GDP per capita,

the national competitiveness ranking of the Swiss Institute for International Management Development (IMD), and the credit rating of government bonds.

Sankei saw that the problem of “cheap Japan,” where wages and goods prices are too cheap, should be solved as soon as possible.

SOPHIA KIM

ASIA JOURNAL

Currently, large companies Skc&c and AIA Life Insurance are developing joint healthcare solutions with mou. It’s been announced.

AIA Life Insurance is developing an artificial intelligence-based health care platform. To this end, it will join hands with SK C&C, a leading IT solution company in Korea.

AIA Life Insurance’s Korean branch (CEO: Cha Tae-jin, hereinafter “AIA Life”) signed a memorandum of understanding with SK C&C (CEO: Park Jung-ho) at SK Group’s headquarters in Seorin-dong, Jongno-gu. It announced that it has decided to jointly develop a customer-centered digital integrated health care platform using AIA Vitality, a global health care program, and SK C&C’s artificial intelligence Aibril.

Through this MOU, the two companies plan to build customized health care services by combining “AIA Vitality,” the first scientific health care program in the Asia-Pacific region, and “Aibril,” an artificial intelligence using Watson of SK C&C. The plan is to reduce the risk of major diseases caused by smoking, drinking, poor eating habits, and lack of exercise by allowing customers to have healthy lifestyles on their own.

“AIA Vitality” is AIA Life Insurance’s scientific health care program that presents knowledge and methods for members to protect their health on their own. Using the principles of behavioral economics, members pursue healthy habits and provide various benefits such as discount coupons such as fitness centers, yoga centers, health foods, plane tickets, and coffee when they achieve their given goals. Through this, members can continue to make efforts for their own health care.

SK Co., Ltd. C&C plans to increase the service level of “AIA Vitality” as a customized health management service that considers individual physical characteristics, lifestyle, and living environment by utilizing IoT technology capabilities such as ▲ Watson-based artificial intelligence “Abril” ▲ various wearable devices.

The two companies plan to prepare various reward programs in the future and make it easier for domestic healthcare companies to participate in providing health care services through an “integrated digital health management platform.”

And it seems that artificial intelligence robots, especially seniors, have conversations or provide non-face-to-face emergency notification services.

Wonderful Platform, a developer, taught robots how to care for the elderly, living environment, and medical knowledge through artificial intelligence and applied related manuals.

It has added a speechless function to soothe the elderly’s sense of isolation and is equipped with various activity functions to prevent dementia.

“In an emergency, if you touch this emergency button or shout for help, an emergency notification will be sent to your guardian.”

With the development of such a care robot, the Wonderful Platform participated in the non-face-to-face welfare sector during the government’s Korean version of the New Deal project last year and received support such as upgrading services, and was selected as the best case of the Korean version of the New Deal this month.

Currently, care services are provided to 2,600 elderly people through local governments and health centers nationwide.

As the demand for non-face-to-face care services increases amid the COVID-19 situation, the service targets will be further expanded not only to the elderly but also to children with developmental disabilities.

There seems to be a lot of regrets. It seems to be a simple companion, an emergency notification, and knowledge information sharing. It is just an object called a robot, and it seems not enough to be called artificial intelligence. It feels like a non-face-to-face caregiver robot.

If so, attention is already paid to the Korea University Hospital (Yonsei Foundation Severance, Korea University Hospital, Yeungnam University Hospital, Pusan National University Hospital, etc.), institutions (Disease Headquarters, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Foreign Affairs), and the Airport Management Corporation. Japan’s Omron, Softbank, DataScope, Fujisoft, Toyota (Elematec Corporation), and Matsui Corporation have been conducting artificial intelligence tests in Spain for more than a year, combining basic diagnoses such as blood pressure, blood sugar, electrocardiogram, and oxygen saturation with general devices (wearable watches) and their servers. Although it is a small and medium-sized company, I think it is the best existing company that combines medical care with more than 20 professional software hardware developers. Tele-doc, a U.S. NASDAQ-listed company, also sent a LOI and is set to enter the U.S.

▲ INFOMINING CO., LTD

▲ CEO : Jae-yong Lee

▲ http://infomining.co.kr

▲ worldconsult@infomining.co.kr

▲ +82-70-4914-2970

Sam Kim

Asia Journal