Urayasu, Chiba Pref. –
The Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, said Thursday that it will demand a pay increase of 6% or more for small and midsize companies in shuntō annual spring wage negotiations next year.
The umbrella body for labor unions across the country will demand a pay raise of at least 5% for firms overall, including larger ones.
Rengo set the higher goal for small and midsize businesses to rectify wage gaps with larger companies. It adopted the targets at a meeting of its central committee in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture.
„We are at a crucial point to determine whether we can consolidate the trend that has led to wage increases,“ Rengo President Tomoko Yoshino said in an opening speech at the central committee meeting.
Rengo will demand an increase of 4% or more in pay scale in addition to a regular wage rise of 2%, for a total raise of at least ¥18,000 in monthly pay, for workers at small and midsize companies. Overall, it will seek a pay-scale rise of 3% or more.
In this year’s shuntō negotiations, the wage gap between large and smaller companies expanded, although labor unions won larger pay increases than they did in recent years.
Referring to the 2025 negotiations, Rengo said that more workers need to benefit from the current trend of pay increases.
Rengo also stressed the need to ensure companies pass on higher costs to customers in order to pay more to employees. If they are not able to do so, Japan will face the risk of falling into deflation again, it said.