EXCLUSIVE: Japan Govt Workers’ Monthly Pay Seen to Rise around 3.5 Pct

Tokyo, July 30 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s National Personnel Authority is expected to recommend raising monthly salaries for national government employees by around 3.5 pct on average in 2026, informed sources told Jiji Press on Thursday. The agency is also likely to recommend raising annual bonuses for government workers to 4.7 to 4.75 months of salary, up 0.05 to 0.1 month from the previous year. The agency’s recommendations would mark the fifth straight year of increases in both monthly salaries and bonuses for government employees. The move would follow the previous year’s rise, which topped 3 pct for the first time in 34 years. In the 2026 spring labor-management wage negotiations, private-sector labor unions in Japan won pay increases averaging 5.01 pct on a weighted basis, according to the final tally released earlier this month by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation. The agency issues recommendations about government workers’ pay to parliament and the cabinet every year after studying private-sector salaries. This year’s recommendations are likely to be made on Aug. 7. In the 2025 recommendations, the agency called for raising average monthly salaries by 3.62 pct, or 15,014 yen, and annual bonuses by 0.05 month to 4.65 months to correct the gap between private-sector salaries and government workers’ pay. This year, the agency surveyed about 10,100 businesses with 100 employees or more, covering April salaries and bonuses paid between August last year and July this year. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]