Major Japanese Companies Ok Hefty Wage Hikes

Major Japanese firms are set to introduce hefty wage hikes from April amid rising inflation and labor shortages with the annual spring wage negotiations entering their peak stage on Wednesday, Kazuaki Nagata reported for Japan Times.

Photo Insert: Nissan said it will lift the average monthly base wage by ¥12,000, the largest hike under the current personnel structure since 2004.

NEC announced that it will raise monthly base wages by ¥7,000, which also covers ¥2,000 worth of points workers can use in its cafeteria. Including regular pay hikes and bonuses, the average annual salary will be bumped up by 5.5%, according to NEC.

Industrial conglomerates Hitachi and Toshiba also agreed to a ¥7,000 base wage increase.

It represents the largest hike since 1998 for Hitachi. Other major electronics and tech companies such as Panasonic, Fujitsu, and Mitsubishi Electronics also decided to implement similar base wage hikes as well.

Nissan said it will lift the average monthly base wage by ¥12,000, the largest hike under the current personnel structure since 2004, while planning to offer an annual bonus equivalent to 5.5 months of salary.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries also agreed to fully meet the demand from its labor union, the first such decision in 49 years, to raise monthly base salaries by ¥14,000.

While companies' responses to the spring wage negotiations usually culminate in mid-March, this year’s talks saw some firms making quick decisions to boost pay.

Auto giant Honda reached an agreement with its union on March 1 to meet its demands in full at its third negotiation round, the quickest time in which such a decision for shuntō negotiations has been made since 1990.

Honda is set to raise its employees’ average monthly salary by about ¥19,000, a 5% bump including increasing the base wage by ¥12,500.

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