The nation's most powerful business lobby called Tuesday for a review of the practice that sees industrywide labor unions demand a uniform raise in base pay, saying the performances of individual companies and employees should be reflected.

"There is a big gap in the business environment and profitability among companies in the same industry, so collectively and uniformly demanding wage increases no longer fits the reality," Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation), told a forum in Tokyo ahead of the start of annual labor-management wage negotiations.

At the event attended by representatives of labor unions and company officials in charge of personnel management, Nakanishi also sought a review of other long-held practices, including automatic wage increases on the basis of employees' age or length of service and employment until retirement age.