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Unions seek standard pay hikes
Key corporate labor unions filed their wage demands for the year with management Friday, kicking off the year’s “shunto” spring wage negotiations. Their demands focus on maintaining regular pay hikes amid the country’s economic conditions and tough employment situation. Under a regular wage hike system, workers have so far been granted an automatic pay increase…
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Japan Wages Slump at Near-Record Pace of 6.1% as Bonuses Slide
Japan’s wages slumped at a near- record pace in December as employers pared workers’ bonuses, an indication that consumer spending is unlikely to drive the economic recovery. Monthly wages including overtime and bonuses slipped 6.1 percent from a year earlier to 549,259 yen ($5,056), the Labor Ministry said today in Tokyo. Paychecks slumped an unprecedented…
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Year-end bonuses make sharpest drop ever
The average year-end bonus at major Japanese companies this year plunged by 15.01 percent to 755,628 yen, the sharpest year-on-year drop since the records began in 1959, the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) has announced. It is also the first double digit decline for winter bonuses, with the figure standing at the lowest level since…
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Panel urges tiny minimum wage raises
Twelve prefectures will likely raise their minimum wage levels by as little as 2 yen and no higher than 30 yen an hour. The small increase reflects the grim economic situation. A subcommittee of the Central Minimum Wages Council, an advisory panel to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, proposed Tuesday the slight raise…
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Aso to urge business leaders to give in to wage demands
If Aso follows through with the request, it will represent the full application of his prime ministerial authority to raising corporate wages across the nation, the sources said. In addition to higher wages to spur the anemic economy, the government appears ready to implement a long-promised fiscal stimulus policy of handing out cash gifts worth…
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Japan’s Aso Will Ask Business Leaders to Boost Wages, Kyodo Says
Prime Minister Taro Aso plans to meet with top Japanese corporate executives next week to seek higher wages for workers, Kyodo News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Aso will meet with Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, and other business leaders Dec. 1 in an effort to bolster the economy, the…
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Nippon Keidanren backs wage hikes, raises concerns on take-home pay
The country’s most powerful business lobby plans to accept pay raises at high performing companies under a set of management guidelines for the 2008 annual spring labor offensive, sources said. It will be the fourth straight year for Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) to back wage hikes in the spring offensive, known as shunto. In…
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Nippon Keidanren to urge members to offer wage hike
The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) likely will call on employers to offer wage increases in next year’s spring labor offensive as many major companies are raking in record profits, according to a draft position paper obtained by The Yomiuri Shimbun. The country’s most influential business group will urge its about 1,300 member companies to…