Are Japanese Nominal Wages Downwardly Rigid? (Part I): Examinations of Nominal Wage Change Distributions

We would like to thank Professors Charles Yuji Horioka (Osaka University) and Atsushi Seike (Keio University), Messrs. Takeshi Kimura (Bank of Japan, Policy Planning Office), Tomiyuki Kitamura (Bank of Japan, Financial Markets Department), and Toshitaka Sekine (Bank of Japan, Research and Statistics Department), participants at the seminars of the Kansai Institute for Social Economic Research and Keio University, and the staff of the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies (IMES) for their valuable comments. The data used in this paper are from the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers of the Institute for Research on Household Economics (IRHE). We are grateful to the IRHE for kindly allowing us to use these data. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Bank of Japan or IMES.