We have contrasting ideas when it comes to work in NZ and Japan. In NZ, there is a high minimum wage, I believe it will be $20 in April, which is about 1350 Japanese Yen.

In Japan, the minimum wage varies by prefecture, but in Yamagata it is currently 790 yen, about $11.20NZ. That’s almost half NZ (well, at least it will be in a few months’ time).

What this means is that NZ has been forced to innovate more so that we can have viable businesses. This does I believe explain Japan’s lower unemployment rate. It’s cheaper in Japan to hire people, so you hire them for things that we forgo in NZ, for example people to guide you in car parks, or at the same time bank workers.

In Japan you can afford to have bank tellers, so they don’t put much effort into automating things as much as they do in NZ. That’s a major reason why Japanese banks are stuck in the 80s (passbooks are still very much a thing, and ATMs only work during certain hours).

On the other hand, NZ prioritizes the worker much more than Japan. This makes wages higher, and means companies have to be innovative when it comes to distributing work. Thankfully technology is automating jobs that we probably shouldn’t be doing if we’re only doing them to provide jobs.

This is a debatable point, but I believe jobs should be automated where possible. Unvalued work is what the Nazis used to torture people during the Holocaust. Very strong words, but it shows just how important meaningful work is to us humans. Where it’s debatable is with the term meaningful, but i would say it would be anything that only humans can do well at.

To be continued