Large Spring Wage Hikes in Japan for Third Successive Year

Demands Met by Major Companies

According to preliminary figures released by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengō), “spring wage offensive” negotiations at 1,100 companies where its unions are based, as of March 23, resulted in an average wage rise of 5.26%. Although this is down 0.20 percentage points year on year, it is the third consecutive year for the level to be above 5%.

Looking only at 552 small and medium-sized enterprises (with fewer than 300 employees), the wage hike rate was 5.05%. This was a drop of 0.04 percentage points, but remains above 5% for the second consecutive year. However, it was far short of the target set by Rengō of 5% overall and 6% for SMEs, which aims to correct the disparity between wages at companies of different sizes.

Despite difficult business conditions due to US President Donald Trump’s high tariffs, among the many responses from major companies on March 18, Toyota met union demands fully for the sixth successive year. Other big manufacturing firms in industries like electronics and automobiles also announced significant wage hikes. 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.

Data Sources

• First results of 2026 “spring wage offensive” negotiations (Japanese) from Rengō

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © PhotoAC.)