Japan Govt Urges Keidanren to Raise Wages

October 19, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Friday called on the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, to offer wage increases in next year's "shunto" labor-management negotiations in spring.

It will be the sixth straight year for the government to request the management side to raise pay for employees in shunto talks.

At a meeting with officials of Keidanren, the country's largest group of employers, including its chairman, Hiroaki Nakanishi, Suga asked companies to "boost efforts" for pay hikes ahead of the consumption tax rate increase to 10 pct from the current 8 pct in October next year.

Noting that wages were hiked at many companies in the 2018 shunto talks, Suga stressed, "We want to ensure Japan's departure from deflation and the realization of a virtuous economic cycle in the next three years."

On Thursday, Rikio Kozu, president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, told a press conference that the labor side will demand pay scale hikes for the sixth straight year in the 2019 shunto.

But Rengo did not include a specific number for its demand in its basic concept for the upcoming shunto, which was unveiled the same day, as it plans to hold more in-depth discussions on reviewing methods to call for pay hikes.

The trade union umbrella body will show a concrete demand level by the end of November, when it decides a strategy for the 2019 shunto. Jiji Press