An article from the Wall Street Journal overnight:
- Japanese manufacturers kicked off an annual round of wage talks and signaled they are ready to raise wages for the first time in years
- At the wage talks Wednesday, unions, in their first requests for a pay increase since the 2008 economic crisis, asked for a 1% raise in the so-called base salary, which excludes bonuses and other special pays
The companies don’t sound too sure:
- “We will consider whether we can contribute to a virtuous cycle,” said Makoto Kubo, senior executive vice president at electronics giant Toshiba
- “There is no doubt that the connection to the Japanese economy is one point for discussion,” Toyota Motor Corp. Senior Managing Officer Naoki Miyazaki said Wednesday. “Toyota is not going to ignore that when making a decision,” he said, though he cautioned that nothing has been decided on wage levels.
- Honda, Mitsubishi and Hitachi also said they are considering the government’s pay-raise request.
- Hitachi Vice President Naoki Mitarai said raising the base pay is “an option” to reward employees
Hmm. we’ll see, though the pressure is on from Abe …
Japan Inc. Gets Ready to Raise Wages (The Wall Street Journal is often gated, so if you’re unable to access the article try a search of Google news using the headline)
