The pay raises at major carmakers and electronics firms announced Wednesday may be the first increases in five years but illustrate the fact that there are growing wage disparities between industries, companies and individuals.
Companies no longer offer uniform pay raises, and in the current global economy, competition is pushing some Japanese firms to lessen their wage increases, economists and labor experts say.
In the electronics sector, for example, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Hitachi Ltd. each offered a 500 yen increase per month, while Fujitsu Ltd. proposed a 1,000 yen raise.