This year's wage negotiations have started. The Japan Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), Japan's largest labor organization, has decided for the first time in five years to demand across-the-board raises in wage bases.
Wage negotiations will reach a climax in March when the management of major industrial sectors are expected to make wage offers. Both labor and business leaders must do their best to stop deflation caused by a decrease in wages.
The Abe administration has been telling both labor and business leaders that wage raises are important for pulling Japan out of deflation. It established a conference composed of government, labor and management leaders, and toward the end of 2013, the conference issued an agreement that called for channeling increased business profits into wage raises.