This man in central Japan works as a janitor at a hospital.

He earns roughly the current minimum wage, and his monthly take-home pay is at most about 900 dollars.

He did everything he could to cut down on spending as prices rose.

But eventually he burned through his savings, and had to go back and live with his parents.

I just wonder, which will come first.

Me burning out, or my life falling apart.

Japan's current average minimum wage is equivalent to about 6 dollars and 70 cents, putting it at rock bottom among advanced nations.

Even the recommended record pay hike will do little to change the landscape.

The weaker yen contributes to the relatively small figure.

Still, many say wages are not keeping up with the rising cost of living.

The situation is putting growing pressure on firms to hike pay.

But there are worries that doing so could prove unsustainable for small to medium-sized companies.

This restaurant and take-out chain has 34 shops and employs hundreds of people in Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo.

With the costs for a range of items increasing, the head of the company says another pay raise will just add to the difficulties for the business.

The price hikes we've passed on to consumers have been relatively small compared to the increases in our costs.

We're just trying to keep the company from sinking into the red.

Adding even more to the firm's worries, membership supermarket giant Costco recently opened a store in the prefecture.

The multinational retailer offers an hourly wage closer to the international standard.

For smaller firms like us, it's a threat.

If they pay wages that are 50 percent higher than ours, then it's not just us;

many businesses in the region won't be able to compete.

Experts say the government needs to help smaller firms be able to pass on growing labor costs.

This will allow them to pay workers more, benefitting the overall economy.

If the minimum wage is increased sharply, it leads to a boost in consumption.

Businesses tend to see the pay hike as a burden.

But when we look at the economy as a whole,

if companies are able to pass on labor costs to customers and offer higher value services,

it will have a positive impact on the economy.

Stagnant wages have long been an underlying cause of Japan's sluggish economy...leaving consumers unable to boost their spending.

The country now sits at a pivotal moment as momentum builds for pay raises, but it's not clear they will be enough.

Professor Furukawa Hidemitsu is on the Faculty of Engineering at Yamagata University.

He's been working to develop a 3D printer that can produce more realistic food items.

First, the food is analyzed in three dimensions to create a blueprint for a 3D printer.

For this pumpkin food item, he's using a gel made of reconstituted pumpkin powder.

The instructions tell the machine how much to secrete for each layer as a plate underneath moves with precision.

It creates a variety of products, such as tuna and shrimp.

Even though it uses a soft, gel-like substance, a 3D printer allows the creation of detailed items.

As Japanese society ages, the device is getting attention for its potential to help people in nursing homes.

Patients in the facilities who have trouble eating are served meals in an easy to swallow form, such as paste or jelly.

The kitchen staff do what they can to create variety, but ultimately the food is still in liquid form for every meal.

These patients ask, 'What is this?'

They don't feel comfortable with foods they don't recognize.

It makes it hard for them to work up an appetite, which comes from stimulating the visual and olfactory senses.

After consulting with nursing home staff, Professor Furukawa decided to try and see if he could make something more appealing.

He decided to create 3D printed vegetables.

Their appearance and taste is easy to recreate.

He is especially proud of his 3D printed broccoli.

He has recreated stalks and florets with unique textures by tweaking the amount of coloring and water added to broccoli powder.

Not only does it look better, it can also be tailored to each patient.

Using 3D printers to make nursing home food allows the texture

and calorie count to be adjusted to meet each person's physical and nutritional needs.

In late June, Professor Furukawa put his broccoli to the test with a tasting session for staff who make nursing home food.

I brought something for everyone to try.

It's actually close to the real thing!

It's a little watery.

Despite still being in the research stage, the printer can produce items customized to a person's individual needs.

Broccoli is something we couldn't serve to some patients.

I think they will welcome this.

3D printers can open up new possibilities for foods in nursing homes and hospitals.

I'm only just getting started.

As Japan's society ages, it's spurring innovations that could create a revolution in providing individualized care for seniors.

Unwanted and fast-growing bamboo often causes problems for property owners.

And the large amounts of lint produced at towel factories can cause catastrophic fires.

Today's On-Site Report shows how creative business models are now turning these nuisances, into useful new products!

The city of Miyako-no-jou is located near the southern end of the island of Kyushu.

The surrounding area is home to approximately 5 square kilometers of bamboo -

much of which is has grown unmanaged for many years.

Nearby, a farm that raises one of the city's most famous livestock -

Miyakonojou pigs, is fattening them up with feed containing locally harvested bamboo.

Wood processing business owner Tanaka Kou-ichirou was the first to release a bamboo-based feed product in Japan.

He took over a project that was being conducted by the Miyazaki Livestock Research Center and commercialized it.

There have been a number of projects throughout Japan that tried to use bamboo to make agricultural products,

but failed because of its extremely hard fibers.

Knowing how tough it is, Tanaka invested in a bamboo cutter.

Since most of the bamboo in the area is on privately owned land,

many land owners can't afford to keep the rugged and fast growing plants in check.

Fortunately for them, Tanaka is willing to provide the service free of charge.

Last year, one property owner asked him to remove the bamboo from a 2000 square meter area of land.

The last time he had the same parcel of land cleared, it cost him over $10,000.

To put it bluntly, bamboo is a pain in the neck!

So I'm really thankful to be able to get rid of it at no cost!

Tanaka then takes the plants he cuts down to his processing facility and runs them through a bamboo mill.

The hard and fibrous material is finely crushed and ground to ensure that it's easy for livestock to eat and digest.

He then adds a unique blend of lactic acid bacteria and molasses to the milled bamboo and mixes it thoroughly.

Next, the mixture is pressed into a cylindrical shape and tightly wrapped in plastic.

The final step - is to let each unit of feed sit for 40 days until the fermentation process is complete.

Tanaka then sells the bamboo to farmers as a supplement that is usually mixed with other types of livestock feed.

On average, he sells it for about 40% less than standard supplements that are made from rice-straw.

This pig farm is one of his clients.

By using the bamboo supplement rather than a standard supplements,

the owners estimate that each pig eats 30kg less feed over a 6-month period.

The reason for such a difference?

Experts attribute it to the high fiber content of bamboo which improves intestinal health and increases nutrient absorption.

Using the bamboo feed probably saves us around $150-200,000 a year on feed costs.

Another bonus?

The bamboo also makes pig manure less pungent - creating a more pleasant working environment for the farmers.

Our product can also be used as a supplement in cow and chicken feed.

And with prices skyrocketing due to the war in Ukraine and other issues,

having a product made from locally sourced bamboo puts us in a great position for success.

To make a good camp fire, you need decent tinder.

As you can see, this tinder ignites almost immediately.

It's made from cotton lint that is produced during the towel manufacturing process.

Located in Ehime prefecture, the city of Imabari is known for being the top towel producer in all of Japan.

After going through the dying process, the towels are then dried.

As you can imagine, thousands of towels going through industrial dryers produces quite a bit of lint.

While it may look harmless, this fluffy residue is actually quite dangerous, as it is known for causing electrical shorts and even fires.

This factory dyes and dries nearly 3000 kilograms of towels per day.

So much lint is collected, employees must check and clean the dryer's filters 6-7 times every day.

This results in bag upon bag full of cotton lint.

The person who decided to try using the lint as tinder for starting fires?

Product Manager, Fukuoka Tomonari.

As an avid camper, he realized the flammable fluff had another potential use.

Using hemp chord for tinder has been popular for a long time, so I thought our cotton lint might work just as well.

Testing found that a 10 gram wad of lint will burn continuously for 5 minutes and unlike many standard products,

doesn't produce ash or give off any unpleasant odors.

In addition to its performance, the company also wanted to feature its bright colors to really make it stand out.

The towels are kept separated during the drying process, so each machine collects a single color of lint -

allowing them to create interesting designs by combining different colored lint during the packaging process.

Available for sale since February of 2022, each package contains 5 tinder wads and sells for about $4.50.

Refills packaged in paper bags are also available for around $2.50.

In recent years, camping has seen a surge in popularity in Japan, so sales have been good for the towel lint tinder.

We've already sold over a hundred of them.

They look really nice, so we have a lot of female campers buying them.

- It's so cute.
- Yeah, it looks nice.

On your first try!

It was easy.

I was hoping that our lint-based Tinder would "catch fire", but I didn't expect it to become this popular.

I hope consumers will also recognize that selecting this type of a product is a great way to reduce waste!