THE JAPAN NEWS


 

Many major Japanese automakers and electronics firms fully accepted labor unions’ pay demands while major steelmakers and heavy machinery companies revived a pay scale increase as this year’s shunto labor-management wage talks reached their climax on Wednesday.

Those companies offered bigger wage increases than they did in last year’s talks as they recovered from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic despite an uncertain outlook on the economy due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The focus will now shift to whether smaller companies will be able to raise wages.

Nissan Motor Co. fully accepted the labor union’s demands for a monthly wage hike of ¥8,000. On March 9, Toyota Motor Corp. already agreed to fully meet the demands of its labor union.

In a rare move for electronics makers, Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. fully accepted their labor unions’ demands, agreeing to a pay scale increase of ¥3,000.

Panasonic Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd. agreed to a pay scale increase of ¥1,500. Last year, major electronics makers offered an increase of ¥1,000.

Of major steelmakers, whose talks cover the coming two years, Nippon Steel Corp. offered a pay scale increase of ¥3,000 for fiscal 2022 and of ¥2,000 for fiscal 2023. Major steelmakers implemented no pay scale increase in fiscal 2020 and 2021.

Heavy machinery makers Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and IHI Corp. revived pay scale increases following no such rises last year, agreeing to a hike of ¥1,500.

In this year’s shunto talks, many labor unions increased their wage demands. The labor unions of electronics makers demanded a pay scale increase of ¥3,000, up by ¥1,000 from the previous year.

The government is hoping for a wage increase of at least 3% in this year’s shunto talks.