Recommended monthly pay for Okinawa Prefecture employees raised by 3324 yen, a yearly per person increase of 89,098 yen. (16oc23)


Splendor of Okinawa: Silver Cockscomb, roadside Uruma,11oc23


On 13 October, the Prefectural Personnel Affairs Committee (chair: Isamu Ikeda) recommended to Governor Denny Tamaki and the Prefectural Assembly that the 2023 monthly salary of Prefectural employees be raised by 3324 yen (0.95%) and their bonus by 0.1% of a month’s salary. This is the highest level increase recommended since 1997 and the second year in a row for a raise recommendation.


While the Prefecture must pay due respect to the recommendation, the Prefecture expects to submit the recommendation to the Prefectural Assembly as a supplementary budget and moreover check carefully to align it with the Prefectural Rule Reform Bill. If all is approved, salaries will be adjusted retroactively from April of this year.


The committee members based their recommendation on the Public Employees Law. That law takes into consideration such factors as gaps in private sector pay. Then the committee recommends a review of prefectural employee monthly pay.


A random sampling was taken from 134 private sector work places out of the 438 enterprises in the prefecture with 50 or more employees. Salaries from April were compared. As a result, since both average salaries and bonuses for prefectural employees had fallen below private sector counterparts, the elimination of the gap was recommended.


Compared to private sector employees, there was a deficit gap of 3340 yen (0.96%) in monthly salaries and of 0.08 month’s salary in bonuses. So, the committee sought to raise the average yearly salary by 89,098 yen. That will increase the total budget by about 1.8 billion yen.


Moreover, in April of 2024, in a revision of the Regional Autonomy Law, there is the possibility of a diligence compensation allowance, not currently available, for fiscal year appointed staff. So, the committee recommended, “An appropriate response to that possibility is essential”, to the Prefecture.


According to the committee, during the period of high economic growth after Okinawa’s reversion to Japan,  there were recommendations to raise salaries over 30%, by as much as 20,000 yen.


Original Japanese article: Okinawa Times, published Sunday 15 October 2023 at 10:23. Byline: Akinori Ono.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/62fad95fb231b9702801213f90d372400be22bb6


Denny in the News: news about Governor Denny Tamaki.


Denny Tamaki is the governor of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Although Okinawa is important as an international tourist destination and a key element in strategic US Military Forces, its governor receives very little coverage in the Japanese press and almost none in the English language media. 


This blog hopes to  translate one news article a day on the governor.  It is unsponsored and unauthorized. The translator simply hopes to improve his skills and perhaps give the governor an English speaking audience. 


Any suggestion on improving my translation will be gratefully accepted. However, please leave political comments for another forum.


Where they occur, words and phrases in Ryukyuan (the Okinawan language) are rendered in italics and translated in parentheses. Names  whose readings are uncertain are rendered as Name (=Kanji?) as in Nagayuki (=長行?). Any corrections in such instances would be gratefully appreciated

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