Japan’s Union Group Aims for 6% Wage Increase in Next Spring’s Talks, According to Reuters

By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO – Japan’s largest industrial union, UA Zensen, announced on Monday its intention to pursue a 6% overall wage increase in upcoming spring negotiations, including a 4% increase in base pay.

Annual wage negotiations commenced on Monday and are set to conclude on January 23, ahead of Japanese blue-chip companies’ wage hike proposals for the following year in March.

This year, Japanese firms provided their employees with the most significant wage increases seen in three decades. Wages for the average Japanese worker had remained largely stagnant since the asset bubble burst in the early 1990s until this year.

"We have bolstered our commitment to wage increases, focusing on the core issues driving these raises, rather than just targeting an approximate 6% increase," stated a UA Zensen official.

UA Zensen represents approximately 2,291 unions, encompassing 1.8 million workers across various sectors, including service, textiles, and distribution, making it Japan’s largest sector-to-sector union.

The union will present its official executive plan for wage increases on December 6 and finalize its demands for the 2024 negotiations by January 23, leading up to spring negotiations with major corporations, which are expected to be completed by mid-March.

This marks the second consecutive year that UA Zensen’s pay demand exceeds that of Rengo, Japan’s largest trade union confederation, which recently proposed wage hikes of 5% or more for the upcoming year.