THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
March 15, 2023 at 18:31 JST
A union staff member writes in the management responses to wage hike demands on March 15. (Jumpei Miura)
Workers at several major companies will see their heftiest paychecks in decades after management on March 15 accepted the wage hike demands of unions in the annual spring labor offensive.
Labor unions were seeking the highest pay hikes in recent years to help workers deal with the surge in consumer prices caused largely by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Major electronics company NEC Corp. agreed on the full 7,000-yen ($52) monthly pay-scale hike demanded by its union. The increase was 4,000 yen higher than last year’s pay-scale raise.
Another company that fully complied with its union’s pay-scale hike demand was Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. Its employees will receive a monthly wage increase of 14,000 yen.
The last time the company fully accepted the union’s demands was in 1974.
Zensho Holdings Co., operator of the Sukiya beef bowl chain and other eateries, agreed to a pay-scale hike of 26,718 yen, which was about 20,000 yen higher than the raise it provided the previous year.
The raise is not unusual for Zensho Holdings. This is the 11th straight year for its workers to receive a pay-scale increase.
Other major companies have already announced full wage hike demand responses.
Honda Motor Co. on March 1 agreed to a pay-scale hike of 12,500 yen, the highest figure on record since 1990.
Rival automakers Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. have also indicated they would fully respond to the unusually large pay-scale hike demands made by their unions.
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