January 22 & 23, 2025

The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) on January 21 published its “2025 Report of the Special Committee on Management and Labor Policy,” which provides guidelines for the business sector in this year’s “shunto” spring labor talks.

Keidanren in its report, while admitting to the need for pay scale hikes, still showed reluctance to offer higher wages to offset price hike rates.

The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) on the following day issued a statement under the name of Zenroren Secretary General Kurosawa Koichi.

Kurosawa in the statement criticized Keidanren for taking a negative stance toward the demand of unions in small- and mid-sized companies for a monthly wage hike of 18,000 yen. He stated that Zenroren will make all-out efforts, including going on strikes, to achieve its goals, such as a substantial wage hike and shorter working hours, in this year’s shunto wage offensive.

Kurosawa pointed out that Keidanren’s report appealed for the need to enable small- and mid-sized enterprises to continue to raise wages, but on the other hand, it stated that in order to achieve this, SMEs should improve their productivity. He claimed that Keidanren’s policy is full of contradictions.

Kurosawa expressed his opposition to Keidanren’s call for an increase in job categories for the existing “discretionary” work system which allows employers to pay wages for the previously agreed-upon working hours and not for actual hours of work.

In addition, the Zenroren secretary general criticized Keidanren for maintaining a negative stance toward an increase in minimum wages.

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Zenroren at a meeting of representatives from industrial and prefectural federations held on January 22 in Tokyo decided that in this year’s shunto wage struggle, it will demand a 32,000-yen or more rise in monthly wages and a 200-yen increase in hourly wages as well as a nationwide minimum wage hourly wage of 1,500 yen without delay.

Furthermore, Zenroren approved a policy of launching a movement aiming to reduce the work day to seven hours and a campaign for the eradication of harassment and gender discrimination in the workplace.