As the economy starts to pick up, workers can expect to see their first wage increases in a long time as the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), the nation's most powerful economic organization, is poised to allow such raises.
But people working at midsize and small firms are unlikely to benefit, raising concerns that the wage gap between them and employees of large companies will widen.
"We would like to turn this into the year of reversing the trend and making an offensive from various angles. We do not think it will be easy to win better wages, but our demand is never excessive," Tsuyoshi Takagi, president of the Japan Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), the nation's largest labor organization, said last week.