Big Spring Wage Hikes at Japanese Companies Again in 2025

According to preliminary figures released by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengō), “spring wage offensive” negotiations at 760 companies where its unions are based, as of March 14, resulted in an average wage rise of 5.46%, up 0.18 percentage points year on year. Compared with past finalized figures, this is the highest level since the 5.66% increase of 1991.

Looking only at 351 small and medium-sized enterprises (with fewer than 300 employees), the wage hike rate was 5.09%. This is the first time for it to rise above 5% since the finalized figure of 5.10% in 1992. However, it was far short of the target set by Rengō of 5% overall and 6% for SMEs, which aimed to correct the disparity between wages at companies of different sizes.

On March 12, when there were many responses to union demands from major companies, big manufacturing firms in industries like electronics and automobiles announced significant wage hikes. Toyota met its union demands fully for the fifth successive year. The focus now shifts to whether the momentum can continue among smaller firms, where labor-management negotiations will come into full swing in April and May.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)