Concentrated Answering Day in Spring Labor Negotiation

2026 spring labor-management negotiations for wage hike reached its peak on March 18th, when managers of major corporations offered answers to wage hike demands of labor unions. Reflecting price inflation caused by volatile international relations, most managers fully accepted the demands, exceeding the target set by labor side which was 5 percent. However, it is still unsure whether wage hike will overcome current price hike.

The negotiation started on January 27th, when the chairman of Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), Yoshinobu Tsutsui, and the president of Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), Tomoko Yoshino, had a meeting. In the meeting, Tsutsui showed willingness for wage increase by encouraging each company to standardize raising basic salary in the negotiation, while Yoshino remarked that the federation would set its target at 5 percent of wage hike to stabilize workers’ ordinary life.

 

Labor unions of major corporations made proposal of their demands for wage hike in February. Managers of those major corporations announced the answers to the demands on March 18th, highlighting an annual spring negotiations. The negotiations of small or midsize companies, which consists of over 90 percent of all businesses in Japan, will be intensified after major companies are settled.

 

On the concentrated answering day, about 60 percent of major corporations fully accepted the demands from labor side. Hitachi announced 18,000 yen (+6.5%) of increase in monthly basic salary, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industry offered 16,000 yen (+7.2% yearly). Both of them fully met the demand from labor unions and their increases became greater than in 2025 by 1,000 yen. Other major corporations in electronics manufacturers or car makers followed mostly the same trend.

 

Carmakers have been suffering from additional tariffs imposed by Donald Trump administration of the United States. Moreover, price of materials has been rising with international conflicts, including war in Ukraine or in Iran. However, the managers embrace concern in keeping workers in their companies, if they fail in meeting demands of wage hike. Although real wage marked 1.4 percent of rise in January 2026, compared to the same month in the previous year, it had been showing declines for consecutive 13 months before January.

 

Former prime minister Fumio Kishida and his successors have been encouraging business managers to raise wages of workers to get rid of deflation. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi stresses her agenda for “strong economy” through active investment. Managers are basically supportive for the course of economic policy laid by Takaichi.

 

However, it is still unclear whether small or midsize enterprises can follow the trend of major corporations. Small businesses are vulnerable for increase of costs for raw materials and labor. The key is whether they can add those costs on the price of their products without facing rejection from their customers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LDP Kickoffs Presidential Election

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   kicked off  its presidential election campaign on September 22 and five lawmakers officially submitted their candidacy to the party. Having lost majority in both Houses of the Diet under the leadership of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the presidential election should be about how to regain power through reform of the party. Nevertheless, the candidates do not talk much about the reform, rather focusing on economic policies for the people or maneuvers to attract the opposition parties.   Those five candidates are former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi, former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Minister on Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Miniser of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi.   Kobayashi insists on temporary income tax cut with a fixed rate, which return is bigger for high-income taxpayers than them with low-income. Identifying h...
Read more

Defense Ministers Meet in Seoul

Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani visited Republic of Korea and had a meeting with ROK Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back. It was the first time for Japanese defense minister to have a bilateral ministerial meeting in these ten years. Both ministers reconfirmed importance of trilateral security cooperation including the United States to deal with another trilateral cooperation by China, Russia and North Korea.   In the  press conference  after the meeting, Nakatani stressed importance of maintaining bilateral relationship between Japan and ROK, or Japan-ROK-U.S. relationship in a volatile security environment. Both ministers agreed on promoting discussion by both defense authorities and exchange of personnel. They also agreed on further cooperation in cutting edge technologies including artificial intelligence, unmanned system or the space. They will maintain joint exercise called “Freedom Edge,” in which multiple countries participate.   Their bilateral relati...
Read more

Contaminated Soil to Prime Minister’s Residence

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet discussed how the radioactively contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture would be treated and decided some of it should be used in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo. Although the soil needs to be removed from Fukushima with legal requirement, the government of Japan has not found anywhere it should go. Ishiba administration hopes that the decision will pave the way for any local community to accept the soil.   Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant emitted a huge amount of radiation into the air, which contaminated the land surface around the site, in the severe accident in East Japan Great Earthquake in 2011. The contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture was stocked in the intermediate stockyard built in the towns of Futaba and Okuma, where the power plant is located. The government promised the people in Fukushima to remove the soil out of Fukushima prefecture within thirty years, when it decided to build the stockyard in 2014.   The total a...
Read more