Japan's auto, steel, shipbuilding and electrical appliance industries on Tuesday came closer to wrapping up their annual spring wage talks with a record low wage increase for the third straight year, industry officials said.
Wage hikes for workers at leading companies in four industries under the influential Japan Council of Metalworkers' Unions (IMF-JC) are expected to average around 2 percent, down from last year's 2.21 percent.
Labor unions under the IMF-JC, which covers some 4,000 unions mainly in the four industries, are regarded as bellwethers for spring wage negotiations, known as "shunto."