Some Japan Automakers Fully Meet Wage Hike Demands

Tokyo, Feb. 26 (Jiji Press)–Some Japanese automakers have fully met union demands for hikes in monthly wages and annual bonuses in this year’s “shunto” spring labor-management negotiations. Mazda Motor Corp. informed its labor union Wednesday of its decision to offer pay-scale and regular increases of 19,000 yen in total a month. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. agreed the same day to raise monthly wages by 18,000 yen. Also on Wednesday, Yamaha Motor Co., a major motorcycle maker, accepted the labor side’s demand for a 19,400-yen monthly salary hike. Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors and Yamaha Motor are set to offer annual bonuses equivalent to 5.1 months’ pay, 5.0 months’ pay and 5.3 months’ pay, respectively. The three companies gave their responses to the labor side far ahead of March 18, when many major Japanese firms are slated to present their wage plans in the 2026 shunto negotiations, as they apparently aimed to maintain the pay hike momentum amid the current tough business environment partly resulting from the high tariff policy of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. Mazda fully accepted a wage hike demand for the fifth straight year, offering the biggest monthly pay hike since the company adopted the current personnel system in 2003. Hit hard by the U.S. tariff measures, the automaker plunged into the red on the consolidated bottom line in April-December 2025. Mazda Chief Human Resource Officer Tomiko Takeuchi said that the increase in the company’s labor costs will be large as it fully met the union demand. Still, she said, “We need to demonstrate our determination for the future and trust in our employees.” Yamaha Motor also accepted a union demand for a one-day increase in annual days off, the first increase since 1993. With the automobile industry believed to have fewer annual days off than other sectors, the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers’ Unions, of which Yamaha Motor’s labor union is a member, is putting efforts in increasing holidays. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]