By Makiko Yamazaki
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s biggest business lobby Keidanren and trade unions kicked off annual labour talks on Wednesday that are likely to lead to another year of bumper wage hikes, though policymakers will be mainly focused on how far the momentum spreads to smaller firms.
With some of the biggest firms already promising to raise pay substantially for this year, the prospect of large wage hikes is seen supporting the case for the Bank of Japan to increase interest rates later this week.
Japan’s big firms are expected to offer their unions wage hikes of 4.74% on average this year, according to a poll of 35 economists conducted Dec. 23-Jan. 8 by Japan Centre for Economic Research, a private think tank.
The estimate, although lower than last year’s 5.33% average, is considered solid in a country where wages were stagnant for decades until 2022, when rising inflation and structural labour shortages piled pressure on…
