Photo/Illutration A board at the Japan Council of Metalworkers’ Unions shows offers made by steelmakers, heavy machinery makers and other companies during the “shunto” spring labor offensive on March 13. (Hikaru Uchida)

Japan's largest business group announced on May 20 that the rate of wage increases among major corporations this year was 5.58 percent, marking the first time since 1991 that the figure exceeded 5 percent.

Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) released the first tally for the “shunto” spring wage negotiations.

The 5.58 percent, which included regular salary increases and base increases, far exceeded last year’s rate of wage increases, which was 3.99 percent in the final tally.

The data was compiled for 89 companies in 16 industries that had reported to Keidanren by the date.

The average monthly wage increase was 19,480 yen ($125), the highest since 1976, when comparable data became available.

In this year’s shunto, Keidanren expressed its intention to aim for a wage increase of 4 percent or more at large companies, calling for higher wages than in the previous year, with the aim of ending deflation through a virtuous cycle between wages and prices.

Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation) had set a target of “5 percent or more.”

Keidanren has deemed the target as “worthy of consideration and evaluation by labor and management.”

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