Japan union group Rengo announces biggest wage hikes on record
Members of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, commonly known as Rengo, gather at their annual May Day rally to demand higher pay and better working conditions, in Tokyo, Japan April 29, 2023. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File photo
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese firms have agreed to raise pay by 5.25% this year, the biggest amount and ratio under comparable data available since 2013, the country’s largest union group Rengo confirmed on Friday.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said the government is counting on such wage hikes to trickle down to smaller and medium-sized firms, which account for a whopping 99.7% of all enterprises and about 70% of Japan’s workforce, but many lack the pricing power to pass higher costs to customers.
“We will examine how broad the trend of wage hikes is spreading at a meeting on April 4,” Akira Nidaira, a senior Rengo official told a news conference.
