Full Wage Talks Start in Japan with Labor-Management Forum

Tokyo, Jan. 30 (Jiji Press)–A labor-management forum hosted by the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, was held in Tokyo on Friday, kicking off full-fledged “shunto” spring wage negotiations. In Japan, pay hikes have yet to catch up with inflation, with real wages extending their losing streak to 11 months as of November. The focal point of this year’s shunto is whether pay increases exceeding 5 pct will spread throughout small and midsize companies, which employ some 70 pct of domestic workers, to bring about stable real wage growth in the country, observers said. In the 2025 shunto, major firms’ workers won hikes of over 5 pct for the second straight year, according to the Japan Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo. Keidanren regards pay scale increases as “the standard” for the 2026 labor-management negotiations, Yoshinobu Tsutsui, chairman of the top Japanese business group, said in his opening speech at the meeting. “We hope many companies, including small and medium-sized firms, will boost base salaries.” To achieve across-the-board pay scale hikes, Tsutsui suggested that smaller businesses improve productivity and that major firms cooperate in having appropriate cost-based pricing take root. Meanwhile, senior officials from the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers’ Unions and other industrial unions presented their 2026 shunto policies. Ahead of the Keidanren forum, Tsutsui and Rengo chief Tomoko Yoshino met in Tokyo on Tuesday and agreed on the importance of securing the pay hike momentum. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]