Major Industrial Labor Group to Seek Pay Hikes of 12,000 Yen or More

Tokyo, Dec. 3 (Jiji Press)–The umbrella body for labor unions in Japan’s automotive, electronics and other industries formally decided Wednesday to demand pay scale increases of at least 12,000 yen a month in next year’s “shunto” spring labor-management negotiations. With the demand, which is the same level as in the 2025 shunto and the highest since the current wage demand system was introduced, the Japan Council of Metalworkers’ Unions, or JCM, aims to achieve continuing wage increases and curb widening pay gaps between large companies and small and midsized businesses. It will be the major industrial labor group’s 13th consecutive year of seeking pay scale hikes. “We will press for aggressive wage increases to ensure solid rises in real salaries for all union members,” JCM head Akihiro Kaneko said at the day’s meeting in Tokyo. He added that the wage increase target “embodies our strong determination to achieve such pay increases.” In the 2025 shunto, JCM unions achieved an average pay scale increase of 10,169 yen. However, the average was 9,160 yen among unions with fewer than 300 members, falling below 12,855 yen among unions with 1,000 or more members Following the adoption of the wage increase target, each union will now draw up its plan for the next shunto. The Japanese Association of Metal, Machinery and Manufacturing Workers, or JAM, which consists mainly of labor unions from small and midsized companies in the machinery and metal sectors, plans to request a pay scale hike of at least 17,000 yen per month, its highest ever. In November, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, formally adopted a plan to seek pay increases of 5 pct or more, the same level as in the 2025 shunto. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]