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September 07, 2025
 

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UNIONS

Nippon Steel Executive Vice President Takahiro Mori, who is set to meet the United Steelworkers (USW) union chief this month, says the Japanese steel producer plans to uphold all of the current agreements between the union and U.S. Steel.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 5, 2024
Nippon Steel exec to meet USW head to seek support for U.S. Steel deal
Winning the union's backing is a priority for the Japanese steel producer because then the acquisition will be "no longer a political issue."
Vietnam's National Assembly (Parliament) building in Hanoi.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 1, 2024
Report says Vietnam to crackdown on workers' rights and foreign aid
The 88 Project couldn't confirm the document's authenticity but acknowledged its partial coverage in state media.
Japan's unemployment rate fell to 2.4% in January from 2.5% in the previous month, with economists suggesting that the current recession is making firms hesitant to increase job postings.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 1, 2024
Japan’s tight labor market to keep upward pressure on wages
The unemployment rate fell to 2.4% from a revised 2.5% a month earlier, the internal affairs ministry reported Friday.
Starbucks workers hold a rally in New York City in 2022.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 29, 2024
Starbucks' pivot on union may shape labor relations beyond its stores
The iconic coffee chain has been locked in a bitter, high-profile and multifront battle with the union across the U.S. since its first win in 2021.
Labor unions at Toyota and other carmakers are seeking record pay increases in this year's spring wage negotiations.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 15, 2024
Major auto firm unions request record pay hikes ahead of annual talks
Whether major automakers fully accept unions' demands for a second consecutive year is set to be in focus after the prime minister called for wage hikes.
Akihiko Matsuura, head of UA Zensen, has called for a standard 6% increase in total wages.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 2, 2024
Major union UA Zensen calls for 6% pay raise to support BOJ policy shift
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is also pushing for wage gains after hikes last year failed to keep up with inflation, putting a burden on household budgets.
1949
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Feb 1, 2024
Japan Times 1924: Rescue workers toiling to save eighteen lives
Workers are in the news when, 100 years ago, miners await a rescue and, 50 years later, unified strikes take place.
Workers assemble vehicles at Toyota's Tsutsumi plant in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 30, 2024
Toyota union eyes extra month's bonus in annual negotiations
Wage increases by Toyota and other carmakers will be seen as a bellwether for the rest of Japan's manufacturing sector and economy.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 29, 2024
Pay hikes at small firms in focus at Japan’s spring wage negotiations
The decisions of such companies will play a big role in determining whether Japan can achieve a healthy wage-price cycle.
Toyota's main Tokyo office on Wednesday
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 26, 2024
Toyota union to demand record 2024 bonuses: report
With Toyota saying it expects to post record consolidated operating profits this financial year, the union is also likely to demand high pay hikes.
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2024
Japanese firms and unions kick off wage talks as markets bet on bigger pay hikes
Japan's big firms are expected to offer their unions wage hikes of 3.85% on average this year, the highest wage increase in 31 years.
Eleven of 21 sectors surveyed saw increases in winter bonus payments at major Japanese firms.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 13, 2024
Winter bonuses at major Japan firms see modest rise
The average increased for the second year in a row, though at a slower pace than the 7.77% growth marked in winter 2022.
U.S. Steel’s agreement to sell itself to the Japanese steel-maker has turned into a political football, with key politicians and opponents of the deal seizing on the union’s claims that U.S. Steel didn’t comply with the labor agreement.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 7, 2024
U.S. Steel denies breach of labor agreements in Nippon deal
The Pittsburgh-based manufacturer said it repeatedly reached out to the United Steelworkers during the company’s strategic review before the sale.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 6, 2024
Kishida and Rengo chief amplify push for strong wage growth
Wage gains feeding into demand-led price gains are a condition for any move to normalize monetary policy.
Tomoko Yoshino, president of Rengo, attends a meeting in 2022.
BUSINESS
Nov 17, 2023
Japan's largest labor union to seek worker pay hikes beyond 2024
Rengo said last month it will demand wage hikes totaling 5% or more next year.
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher speaks as she is flanked by Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA's executive director and chief negotiator, during a news conference following the end of the Screen Actors Guild strike in Los Angeles on Friday.
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2023
Actors union explains AI guardrails in strike deal
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) reached a deal with studios like Disney and Netflix this week to end its nearly four-month strike.
An assembly line at Honda Motor's Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio, in November 2016
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 11, 2023
Honda will give autoworkers 11% raise after UAW’s big wins
While nonunion automakers race to boost pay and keep the union out of its gates, the UAW is trying to organize foreign-owned factories in the U.S.
A union team captain reacts after SAG-AFTRA approved a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to bring an end to the 118-day actors strike, at a brewery in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 9, 2023
Hollywood actors reach tentative deal with studios to end strike
The deal also provides protections against unauthorized use of images generated by artificial intelligence.
More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers went on strike from Oct. 4 to 7 across the U.S.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 1, 2023
Unions in the U.S. are winning big for the first time in decades
Recent victories mark a potential turning point for the country’s labor movement, which has seen union ranks and power dwindle for decades.
Striking United Auto Workers union members embrace at the end of their picket shift outside the Ford Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 31, 2023
UAW reaches deal with GM, ending strike against Detroit carmakers
Some analysts have said recent deals will place the Detroit Three at a disadvantage compared with Tesla and foreign brands such as Toyota.
‘Confugenics’ and East Asia's demographic crisis
East Asia’s fertility plunge is driven not just by financial costs but by perfectionist cultural expectations that burden parents with intense educational and social demands.
Japan prince comes of age as succession crisis looms
Prince Hisahito concludes his elaborate "kakan no gi" coming-of-age ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Saturday.
Bangladesh is a South Asian time bomb
Many Bangladeshis hoped that the overthrow of long-time leader Sheikh Hasina last year would revitalize the country’s democracy after an authoritarian lurch under the “iron lady.” Instead it has led to proliferating human-rights abuses, intensifying repression and widespread Islamist violence.
Japan to experience blood moon lunar eclipse on Monday
A blood moon is seen during a partial eclipse in the sky over Lake George near Canberra on March 14.
Japan's $550 billion investment pledge outlined in MOU
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, sign trade agreements on Thursday in Washington.
In rural Hokkaido, the stops and starts of tourism revival on full display
Redevelopment plans for Kawayu Onsen have hit some snags — an example of how bringing tourists back to declining rural communities is far from easy work.
London’s calling and sumo’s top division — along with Hello Kitty — are ready to answer
Yokozuna Hoshoryu and Hello Kitty, an ambassador for sumo's upcoming tour to London, at Tokyo's Kokugikan on Tuesday
Resonac creates 27-member consortium to pursue advanced chip developments
Representatives from member companies of JOINT3, a consortium working together on semiconductor-related developments announced by Resonac, pose for a photo in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Haru Nemuri’s radical new album refuses easy listening
Musician Haruna Kimishima, better known as Haru Nemuri, confronts Japan’s politics, nationalism and censorship on her recent output.
Overseas sluggers step up to bat in small-town Hokkaido
The Betsukai Pilot Spirits welcomed new players (left to right) Yuta Yamanaka, Roman Guthrie, Scott Bellina and Leo Jiminian this year, pictured here with Yassir Lachkar of the Ishikari Red Phoenix.

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