Wage increases at smaller companies in Japan might fall short again this year, some analysts and business leaders argue, leaving many workers falling further behind as inflation continues to eat away the value of their earnings.
For this year’s shuntō spring offensive negotiations, which effectively began last week, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, known as Rengo, set wage-increase targets of more than 6% for smaller enterprises and more than 5% for large companies.
"I believe that this is indeed a tough goal for small and midsized companies,” said Yutaro Suzuki, an economist at Daiwa Securities.
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