— This is the script of CNBC's People of the Week for China's CCTV on December 3, 2022.
Haruhiko Kuroda
In this edition of Person of the Week, we first focus on Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda.
Haruhiko Kuroda previously said that wages in Japan must rise by about 3% to achieve the country's goal of price stability. This is contrary to the general belief that higher wages will stimulate consumption, which in turn will push up inflation. Haruhiko Kuroda explained that inflation in Japan is different from that in the United States and the eurozone. Japanese inflation has accelerated to some extent due to the sharp weakening of the yen, so stable inflation must be accompanied by wage growth.
But we see that even the Bank of Japan's own wage level may have a hard time beating inflation. According to the Bank of Japan, base pay for BOJ employees rose just 0.2% in the fiscal year ending March 2023, while Haruhiko Kuroda's own pay rose just 0.4%. Meanwhile, Japan's core inflation rate rose 3.6% in October from last year, a 40-year high.
If you stretch the timeline, you can also see that the central bank governor's pay has risen by less than 3% over the past decade, and Bank of Japan employee pay has risen by just 2%, while consumer prices in Japan have risen by more than 8% over the same period.
According to Bloomberg, Haruhiko Kuroda's annual salary is about 35.2 million yen, equivalent to 1.84 million yuan, which is as much as eight times the average salary in Japan. Some economists say it's challenging for Japan's public sector to raise salaries.
Koya Miyamae, a senior economist at Nikko Securities (SMBC), said civil service salaries are basically like a tax on everyone else, so raising them at a time when others are suffering from inflation is tricky and politically sensitive.
Mark Zuckerberg & Tim Cook & Elon Musk
Next, let's focus on the tech entrepreneurs in the United States.
Earlier in the week, Elon Musk, the new owner of social media Twitter, stated on Monday that "Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter", and even threatened to withhold the social network from its app store. In addition to Musk, Meta CEO Zuckerberg has also complained against Apple.
This week, at the New York Times Business Summit Dealbook, Zuckerberg accused Apple of having too much influence on the mobile app ecosystem. He pointed out that Apple is the only company that tries to control how software is installed on devices, a practice he believes is unsustainable. Zuckerberg also cited Google's development of Android as a comparison, saying that Android allows users to download apps using channels other than its Play store.
Facebook's digital advertising business suffered a heavy blow last year when Apple changed its privacy policy. In the third quarter, Facebook's parent company Meta's profit fell by over 50 percent compared to last year, and Meta's share price plummeted by two-thirds.
Additionally, Musk criticized the "Apple tax", which is the 15%-30% commission fee Apple charges for the use of its App Store and in-app payment system. Alex Kantrowitz, founder of Big Technology, believes Twitter's opposition to the Apple tax may inspire other tech companies.
Alex Kantrowitz
Founder of Big Technology
"You need someone with the size of Elon Musk to push back and say, Hey, that 30% is unfair, the only way there's actually going to be meaningful progress there is going to be if Twitter goes out and says we're not paying this anymore, and maybe inspires others to. And that's why I think it's going to be fun to watch."