I mean, it's not a great way to raise the salaries of retail and restaurant workers. It's also a terrible way of providing healthcare.
Ultimately it's more a question of supply and demand as to why US SWEs are paid so much.
Ultimately it's more a question of supply and demand as to why US SWEs are paid so much.
Even the best area identified in [2, 3] re: 5-year mortality for cancers is misleading as the US notoriously over-tests early on, detecting disease early, but isn't actually more effective at treating the disease, and folks die at the same time as they would in European systems. This naturally makes the 5-year mortality rates look good, but doesn't change the fact you're still gonna die at the same time.
While admittedly cherry-picked, it's also the only developed country in the world where mother's mortality rates during childbirth are rising. A mother is 5X as likely to die giving birth in America as compared to Canada (where healthcare costs half per capita and covers everyone).
Also, consider the median amount of tax collected in the US (excluding private $800/month tax your employer pays to insurance companies on your behalf) is actually higher sometimes than Canada now. The top marginal rates are also higher, consistently. [4]
[1] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/press-release/2017/new-11-c...
[2] https://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/health-at-a-glance-united-...
[3] http://www.oecd.org/health/health-at-a-glance-19991312.htm
[4] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/07/canadians-may-pay-more-taxes...
Otherwise it seems like raising salaries would help here, since the system would be better funded.
Unless of course raising salaries somehow screws up the system.
But if a country did, it seems that they would want higher salaries so that they would have more resources to fund these systems.
The culture at companies is extremely dependent on the company - a traditional employer might expect the prototypically Japanese extreme deference/obedience to hierarchy, but it also seems that there are plenty of companies that "get it" and don't play that game, as well as the full set of FAANGs and foreigner-run companies that follow a totally different set of rules than the old school businesses here; and it's also subject to change considerably now that model companies like Toyota are moving to merit- instead of loyalty-based promotions, but that kind of shift takes a long time to take hold.
Your job options are much smaller if you don't speak Japanese, but jobs exist, I know people who have gotten them, and they tend to be in the international- or international-style companies. Wages for foreigners strangely are generally decently higher than for locals, I hear, even if not knowing Japanese is more of a handicap than a help lol.