Seasonal Cheer: More Than a Third of Japanese Companies to Raise Summer Bonuses

Employees at many Japanese companies have something extra to celebrate this summer. A survey conducted by Teikoku Databank on summer bonuses at companies across Japan found that among the 1,095 firms that responded, 37.4% planned to increase summer bonus payments. By comparison, 36.4% of firms did not intend to adjust bonus amounts and 9.3% said they will decrease bonuses. Companies paying bonuses made up 83.1% of firms surveyed compared to 11.2% that do not pay bonuses to their employees.

Large companies led the trend in boosting bonuses at 42.3%, followed by 36.5% of small and medium-sized companies. Only 27.3% of small businesses plan to raise bonuses, which is 10.1 percentage points lower than the national average.

By industry, 41.0% of manufacturing firms planned to increase bonuses. A total of 52.2% of companies in the steel, nonferrous metals, and mining sector and around 40% of firms in the wholesale and real-estate sectors answered that they would increase bonuses.

As for the reason for raising bonuses, many companies pointed to improved business performance with the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic measures. Other factors cited were the desire to maintain employee motivation amid a tight labor market and to reduce the financial burden on employees as ongoing inflation drives up prices of consumer goods.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)