By Kantaro Komiya and Leika Kihara

TOKYO (Reuters). Japan’s stock exchange has risen and high-end cars in Tokyo are selling quickly after eight years under Abenomics. But that wealth, which is concentrated in a narrow slice of the population, rather than widely distributed data shows.

Fumio Kirishida, the new prime minister has made it a top priority to address this divide. He promised that he would reduce income inequality which was made worse by the pandemic. He has not given any clues about how he would do it.

Masanori Aoki (62), who runs a coffee shop in northeast Tokyo’s working-class district, said, “It seems like everybody has become poor.”

“Abenomics was a finance minister talking about wealth trickling downward. There was not such a thing. Aoki stated that it was almost nothing and that he took on a temporary job as a kindergarten bus driver during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kimie Kobayashi (55), who is employed at a Tokyo childcare center, claims her salaries have not increased in four years. According to her, many people in this industry accept the reality that their salaries are rarely increasing.

Kobayashi said, “It’s not like my situation is improving.” The government takes tax, but the money doesn’t go to people in real need.

Data show that Abenomics, a massive monetary and fiscal boost and growth strategy which boosted stocks, corporate profits, and created wealth, failed to produce wealth for households through higher wages.

The survey by the Organisation based on available data up to 2020 shows that Japan’s poverty rate ranks second among G7 countries. It is also ninth among OECD country’s.

According to government data, nominal wages increased by 1.2% between 2012 and 2020. According to another survey, the average Japanese household’s wealth decreased by 3.5% between 2014 and 2019, while those in the top 10 percent of wealth saw an increase.

Inequality is much more prevalent in the United States than it is in Britain and other countries. Japan was in the middle among 39 countries surveyed and ranked by OECD in 2020 based the Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient measures inequality.

Japan’s situation improved for some. Manabu Yamasaki spent 7,000,000 yen ($61.800) on a Mercedes-Benz, after accumulating a substantial sum through cryptocurrency investing.

Fujisaki, who is a father to two children, stated that Abenomics made huge returns for investors because central bank money-pumping drove up the prices of financial instruments. He plans to build a Tokyo house worth 200 million yen in Tokyo next year.

Takashimaya Department Store says there is high demand for Patek Philippe watches, which can cost over 10,000,000 yen. Also Baccarat chandeliers that are a little more expensive than 10,000,000 yen.

Alfa Romeo sold an astonishing 84 models of speciality vehicles during the Golden Week holidays, which took place in late April to early May. This made Japan their top-selling global market.

Alfa Romeo’s April-September sales more than doubled compared to the previous year. Industry data also showed an increase in sales of import brands such as Ferrari (NYSE:), Jaguar, and Maserati.

Takahiro, manager of the department store Isetan said, “We are seeing a clear increase in demand for luxurious goods among the new wealthy,” referring to newly rich young entrepreneurs and high-earners.

Kishida hopes that the wealth gap will be reduced by creating a new type of capitalism that offers higher wages to public health workers and doctors, as well as tax incentives for firms who raise their pay.

It would not be easy to achieve what Abenomics’ wall of money failed to accomplish. Kishida has already scrapped plans to tax capital gains more heavily and dividends less.

Shigeto Nakai, economist at Oxford Economics, stated that giving short-term tax reliefs won’t encourage firms to increase their wages. Instead, he advocates for reforms such as Japan’s rigid labour market.

Nagai stated that politicians should abandon the optimistic and unrealistic notion of Abenomics, which holds Japan could cure all ailments by merely readjusting nominal growth.

($1 = 113.2700 yen)