Some Japan Automakers Fully Meet Wage Hike Demands

Tokyo, Feb. 26 (Jiji Press)--Some Japanese automakers have fully met union demands for hikes in monthly wages and annual bonuses in this year’s “shunto” spring labor-management negotiations.

Mazda Motor Corp. informed its labor union Wednesday of its decision to offer pay-scale and regular increases of 19,000 yen in total a month. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. agreed the same day to raise monthly wages by 18,000 yen.

Also on Wednesday, Yamaha Motor Co., a major motorcycle maker, accepted the labor side’s demand for a 19,400-yen monthly salary hike.

Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors and Yamaha Motor are set to offer annual bonuses equivalent to 5.1 months’ pay, 5.0 months’ pay and 5.3 months’ pay, respectively.

The three companies gave their responses to the labor side far ahead of March 18, when many major Japanese firms are slated to present their wage plans in the 2026 shunto negotiations, as they apparently aimed to maintain the pay hike momentum amid the current tough business environment partly resulting from the high tariff policy of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]