Re your comment on wages: official stats are probably accurate for salaried workers but your hourly paid konbini workers (and labourers and housekeepers and and and...) who were paid JPY800/hour 7-8 years ago are now earning JPY1,200 or so depending on the region. Given that the proportion of Japanese in conventional employment has been falling steadily for decades, I'd say that while the salaried middle class are almost certainly feeling the pain of rising prices vs static incomes, actually a large swathe of the population has been well insulated against inflation and if anything is feeling better off.
Re your comment on wages: official stats are probably accurate for salaried workers but your hourly paid konbini workers (and labourers and housekeepers and and and...) who were paid JPY800/hour 7-8 years ago are now earning JPY1,200 or so depending on the region. Given that the proportion of Japanese in conventional employment has been falling steadily for decades, I'd say that while the salaried middle class are almost certainly feeling the pain of rising prices vs static incomes, actually a large swathe of the population has been well insulated against inflation and if anything is feeling better off.