Japan's unique, long-held employment practices characterized by annual new graduate recruitment, lifetime jobs and seniority-based pay raises have helped support economic growth in the postwar period.
But many major companies have begun to question whether to continue with the decades-old system at a time when digitalization and globalization are dramatically reshaping the competitive landscape of their industries.
Keidanren, the country's top business lobby, is urging member companies ahead of the annual shuntō wage negotiations between labor unions and management to review their annual wage hikes and other employment practices that it believes now hinder competitiveness.