The Japan Business Federation has promised pay raises that are higher than price increases. This is in line with Prime Minister Fumio Kisida’s repeated calls to fix an economy that is suffering from inflation. This week, their yearly wage negotiations began.
Most big companies should be done negotiating wages by the middle of March. Smaller companies will take longer to finish theirs.
People from the country’s largest business group are being asked to offer pay raises that are higher than last year’s 3.99% rise. For example, Rengo, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, wants a pay rise of at least 5%. This is more than the 5% increase it wanted in the 2023 wage talks.
The business lobby says that last year’s wage talks saw the biggest rise in wages in 31 years, with major Japanese companies raising wages by an average of 3.99%.
In a video message, Masakazu Tokura, Chairman of Keidanren, stressed that the good effects must also reach small and medium-sized businesses in order for wages to keep going up in the country.
A lot of big companies said they were going to raise their workers’ pay a lot because of inflation before the talks even started. Last year was the biggest rise in pay in 41 years.
Kyodo News reported that firms like Mitsui Fudosan Co., which builds real estate, said they would raise wages by an average of 10%. Lawson Inc., which runs convenience stores, said it would offer pay raises of more than 5%.
For a long time, there was deflation, which meant that prices and pay were thought not to change. But now, things are starting to change, according to Tomoko Yoshino, Head of Rengo. She said that now is a very important time to make a society where the economy, prices, and wages all grow steadily. To do this, she asked big companies to look at their business deals with smaller companies and let them raise prices so that wages can go up.
