As business leaders in Japan face greater pressure to raise wages in an inflationary environment, they’re becoming more vocal about the need to pay employees based on merit.
"It’s not necessarily good for people to feel like they’re being compensated because of inflation,” Takahito Tokita, CEO of Fujitsu, said in a recent interview. "It’s better if we do it because the business is healthy. What we want to do is reward each and every employee who contributes to the growth of our company.”
On one hand, such talk can be seen as a sign of corporate Japan casting aside the remains of a compensation system based on across-the-board rewards and seniority. On the other, it also reflects a degree of hesitancy to raise salaries in knee-jerk reaction to inflation. That’s making it unclear whether rising consumer prices will lead to higher wages.