Many Major Firms in Japan Fully Accept Pay Hike Demands

Tokyo, March 15 (Jiji Press)--With this year's "shunto" spring wage negotiations in Japan reaching a climax, many major companies on Wednesday offered to fully meet pay hike demands from their labor unions, reflecting competition for skilled workers.

This came despite many unions making ambitious pay-scale hike demands at levels not seen in recent years in response to historic price increases.

Close attention is now being paid to whether the momentum for pay hikes will spread to small businesses, which account for 70 pct of all employment in Japan.

In the electronics industry, all 12 major unions, including those at Hitachi Ltd. <6501>, Fujitsu Ltd. <6702>, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. <6503> and Panasonic Holdings Corp. <6752>, had their demands for a pay-scale hike of 7,000 yen per month fully accepted.

The pay scale increases they won are the highest since 1998.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]