Real Wages Turned Positive, But a Salary Freeze Is Still a Pay Cut — Inflation, AI, and Engineer Job Changes in Japan (May 2026)

At the end of 2025, I wrote that wages weren't keeping up with prices. Six months later, the picture has quietly shifted: real wages have finally turned positive. But 'the average is positive' and 'you are positive' are two different things. If your salary is frozen, it is still an effective pay cut. Using the latest government statistics and a domestic survey, we read three converging trends (wages versus prices, AI and employment, and the engineer job market) as close to the primary sources as possible.