That meant fewer young mouths to feed on rising salaries, thanks to a seniority-based system under which pay automatically increased with age.

This will make it even more necessary to scrap the seniority-based pay system, because keeping older workers on will be prohibitively expensive.

The country's seniority-based organizations, and the low participation of women and foreigners in the society and workplace, are often seen as a root of the economy's stagnation.