Japan Press Weekly

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2017 January 25 - 31 [LABOR]

Use of 1% of internal reserves will create 490,000 new jobs

The use of just 1% of large corporations’ internal reserves would lead to the creation of 490,000 new jobs and increase workers’ wages by 20,000 yen per month. This was indicated in a labor union assessment.

The amount of internal reserves held by large companies with a capital of more than one billion yen in 2015 hit a record high of 313 trillion yen, up 13.5 trillion yen from a year earlier. The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) in its guidelines for this year’s spring wage talks admitted that overall business earnings remained at a high level.

The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) is determined to achieve a monthly pay increase of at least 20,000 yen and an increase of over 150 yen in hourly wages for all workers.

The Zenroren-affiliated Japan Federation of National Public Service Employees’ Unions (Kokko-roren) made calculations in discussions on the Zenroren’s demand for the 2017 spring wage offensive. The Kokko-roren’s calculations made it clear that the largest 129 companies can hire a total of 496,000 new employees with an annual income of three million yen by just using 1% of their internal reserves.

At Toyota Motor Corporation, for example, which has 19.9 trillion yen in accumulated reserves, one percent of its internal reserves will create about 66,000 jobs.

Regarding the over 20,000 yen monthly wage hike demand, the calculations showed that 95 of the 129 companies could respond to this demand if they use less than 3% of their internal reserves.

At Toray Industries, Inc. whose president is also the Keidanren president, the use of 1.77% of its 843.5 billion yen in internal reserves will enable the company to raise its workers’ monthly wages by 20,000 yen.

If Toyota decides to use only 0.68% of its internal reserves, all the 349,000 full-time workers and 87,000 temporary workers will be able to earn 20,000 yen more per month.

Past related articles:
> Large corporations accumulate internal reserves by taking advantage of tax cuts [July 8, 2016]
> Large corporations’ internal reserves hit record high under ‘Abenomics’ [September 3 and 4, 2015]