Abe Urges Japanese Corporations to Raise Wages

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday asked business leaders to agree to pay hikes in next spring’s “shunto” wage talks as the Japanese economy struggles to beat chronic deflation.

It is the fourth straight year that Abe has made the request to company executives. Despite years of efforts under his “Abenomics” policy mix, Abe, who took office in 2012, has yet to fully create a virtuous cycle of wage growth and robust consumer spending in Japan.

“I hope to see wage hikes that would be at least on a par with this year,” Abe told a meeting held at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo attended by business leaders.

“I’d like to ask for pay-scale increases,” Abe said.

One of the participants, Sadayuki Sakakibara, chairman of the Japan Business Federation of Keidanren, which represents Japan’s largest companies, said “we hope to keep the momentum for pay hikes.”

However speaking to reporters, Sakakibara struck a cautious note about making a “strong” request to Keidanren member companies to consent to pay-scale hikes, but indicated raising bonuses is an option to realize an increase in annual income.

via Mainichi

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza