BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY'S RELATIONSHIP WITH SDG 8

Since the adoption of the UN’s 2030 Agenda, Japan’s progress in the area of SDG 8 has been relatively slow compared to other SDGs. Following Kanie and Kawakubo (2023), most of SDG 8’s indicators remained almost unchanged, with only very limited improvements (p. 25). Nevertheless, Japan’s performance in the area of SDG 8 remains solid, since the related indicators were already close to the targets set by SDG 8 when the UN’s 2030 Agenda was implemented back in 2016 (Kanie and Kawakubo, 2023, p. 25; Sachs et al., 2025, p. 232).

Despite this solid performance, the lack of progress hints at the presence of significant underlying challenges that Japan still needs to address. Stagnant economic growth and a taxing labour market prevent the country from fully achieving its goals in the area of decent work and economic growth.

CURRENT CHALLENGES AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Over the last few decades, Japan’s non-existent economic growth has been one of its most important challenges. Japan’s stagnant economy has registered dwindling growth rates of real GDP over the past 30 years, generally falling between 0% and 2% (World Bank, n.d.a). Persistent deflation has kept prices and wages virtually unchanged over the past two decades, weakening Japanese citizens’ purchasing power in the global economy (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan [MOFA], 2025, p. 143). 

However, recent developments have raised optimistic expectations about the Japanese economy. In 2024, aggregate wages increased by 3.8%, the highest growth rate experienced by Japan since 1991 (MOFA, 2025, pp. 143-144). Concurrently, Japanese inflation has also risen from 2021 onwards, reaching 2.4% in 2024 (World Bank, n.d.b). Although the recent wave of inflation could be partly attributed to increasing prices of imported resources after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, compounded by a marked depreciation of the Japanese yen, the increase in Japanese wages raised hopes for a renewed period of economic growth, wherein a virtuous cycle between rising wages and rising prices could be restored in the near future (MOFA, 2025, pp. 143-144). Nevertheless, the worsening conditions in the Middle East and their worldwide effect on energy prices and on international market confidence risk jeopardising the recent recovery in Japan’s GDP growth. Moreover, a declining and rapidly ageing population presents additional challenges to the realisation of SDG 8’s vision of a sustainable economy (MOFA,  2024, p. 3). Therefore, strong international cooperation to find new opportunities and work together to mitigate the negative effects of current geopolitical events is essential to ensure that the Japanese economy will not lose momentum.

Furthermore, significant challenges still remain in the area of decent work for all. As stressed by the International Labor Organization (2024), traditional Japanese employment practices often require employees to work longer hours and to relocate geographically based on the needs of their employer. Up to 29.8% of male and 8.7% of female employees worked more than 48 hours per week in 2015 (International Labor Organization, n.d.). Such practices significantly affect workers’ health, sometimes leading literally to death from overwork, and severely impair their work-life balance. Although some regulations have been introduced to address these issues, greater progress can still be made to ensure better working conditions to protect workers’ health (MOFA, 2025, pp. 145-146).

LIST OF REFERENCES AND USEFUL LINKS

International Labor Organization. (2024, March 26th). Emerging Insight: Unveiling the Japan Decent Work 8 Index. Retrieved September 7, 2026, from https://www.ilo.org/resource/article/emerging-insight-unveiling-japan-decent-work-8-index

International Labor Organization. (n.d.). Japan, ILOSTAT. Retrieved September 7, 2026, from https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/country-profiles/jpn/

Kanie, N., & Kawakubo, S. (2023). Halfway to 2030: Japan SDG Local and Regional Report 2023. United Nations Centre for Regional Development. https://uncrd.un.org/sites/default/files/report_halfwayto2030_20230914_en_resized.pdf

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. (2024). SDGs Implementation: Guiding Principles. https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/oda/sdgs/pdf/kaitei_2023_en.pdf

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. (2025). Voluntary National Review 2025. Report on the implementation of 2030 Agenda. Japan. United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. https://hlpf.un.org/sites/default/files/vnrs/2025/VNR%202025%20Japan%20Report_1.pdf 

Sachs, J. D., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G., & Iablonovski, G. (2025). Sustainable Development Report 2025: Financing Sustainable Development to 2030 and Mid-Century. Dublin University Press. https://doi.org/10.25546/111909

World Bank. (n.d.a). GDP growth (annual %) - Japan [Data file]. World Development Indicators. Retrieved September 7, 2026, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=JP

World Bank. (n.d.b). Inflation, consumer prices (annual %) - Japan [Data file]. World Development Indicators. Retrieved September 7, 2026, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG?locations=JP