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April 28, 2024
 

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WAGES

Leaders of Keidanren and labor unions officially started annual spring wage negotiations on Wednesday.
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.
Kishida speaks at a meeting with leaders of Japanese Trade Union Confederation and Japan Business Federation on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 23, 2024
With meetings, Japan leader amplifies call for wage hikes at small firms
Dissatisfaction over falling real wages has been one of the factors undermining the prime minister's support rate, which remained under 30% in a series of recent polls.
At stake in this year's spring negotiations between trade unions and large Japanese firms, analysts say, is whether wages will rise far enough to ignite the sustainable inflation that policymakers consider a prerequisite for ending negative interest rates.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2024
Japan's top business lobby calls for worker pay raises above inflation
The call sets the tone for annual wage talks that may pave the way for the Bank of Japan to exit its ultraeasy monetary policy.
Stronger annual wage negotiation results are likely to pave the way for the Bank of Japan to end its negative interest rate by this spring, a former BOJ official says.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 16, 2024
Wage gains of 4% would pave way for BOJ rate hike, ex-official says
Market participants are monitoring annual wage talks closely as they may be a decisive factor in prompting Japan's central bank to end the world’s last negative rate.
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.
Japanese workers' real wages kept shrinking for a 20th month in November, raising fresh alarm for the sustainability of the country's economic recovery as firms enter the period of annual pay negotiations with labor unions.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2024
Japan’s slower wage growth adds to reasons for BOJ to hold
Nominal cash earnings for workers rose 0.2% from the previous year, decelerating sharply from a 1.5% increase in October, the labor ministry said.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at a New Year’s event hosted by Rengo, the nation’s biggest trade union federation, in Tokyo on Friday.
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.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s new plant nears completion in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 1, 2024
Competitive pay at TSMC plant may ripple across Japan and beat inflation
The chipmaker's compensation packages can serve as a wakeup call to manufacturers in other regions of the country, economists say.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi took office on Dec. 14 after his predecessor quit over a political funds scandal.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 27, 2023
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi vows to tackle distrust
Hayashi, who took office after his predecessor quit over a funding scandal, says revising the relevant law is related to freedom of political activity.
An electronic board displays various companies' share prices at a business district in Tokyo in October.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2023
Japan’s labor demand holds steady in positive sign for wages
The job-to-applicants ratio eased a tad to 1.28, meaning there were 128 jobs offered for every 100 applicants, the labor ministry reported.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (left) shakes hands with Masakazu Tokura, head of Keidanren, during the business lobby's meeting in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2023
Kishida asks firms to achieve larger pay hikes in 2024 than this year
Kishida also underscored the need to support people's disposable incomes, with a scheduled tax cut to be implemented next year.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo. BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda told lawmakers in parliament that his job was about to get even more "challenging” from the end of the year, adding to speculation of looming action by the central bank.
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2023
BOJ set to stay outlier as 2024 hike seen in contrast to Fed
The Bank of Japan has become used to being a policy outlier over its decades-long quest to vanquish deflation. It’s likely to be no different in 2024.
Trucks line up in a queue to cross the Polish-Ukrainian border at the Dorohusk-Jagodzin crossing, in Brzezno, Poland, on Dec. 4.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 11, 2023
Front-line troops in Ukraine feel bite of Polish truckers’ protest
A monthslong border blockade by Polish truckers is starting to have an effect on Ukrainian soldiers.
public spending for people with disabilities as a percentage of gross domestic product has been very low, at 0.7% to 1.2%, compared with the roughly 2% average by OECD countries.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 9, 2023
Japan facilities for disabled people face serious labor shortages
The industry has been affected by low wages and a shrinking population, according to an industry survey.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo. Half of the 52 economists surveyed by Bloomberg said the central bank will scrap its negative rate in April, up from 29% in the October survey.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2023
Most BOJ watchers predict end of negative rate regime by April
"The most beautiful scenario is the end of the negative rate in April”
Deputy Gov. Ryozo Himino's comments are the clearest sign so far from the BOJ’s leadership that authorities are considering what the impact would be if they ended negative rates.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 6, 2023
BOJ’s deputy chief hints that end of negative rate may be closer
Ryozo Himino has set out a hypothesis for what might happen if rates do indeed go positive.
University students attend a job fair. If Japanese companies continue hiring people based on the university they graduated from, acquiring extra qualifications or reskilling won't impact candidates' job prospects.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 29, 2023
Kishida’s stimulus package needs rethinking, not reskilling
The government aims to promote reskilling for nonregular workers to boost their job prospects, but this won't matter if hiring practices don't change.
Monthly regular pay rose 3.2%, or ¥9,437, on average this year, both record highs since comparative figures began in 1999.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2023
Japanese firms giving record pay raises this year, poll shows
Policymakers have said hiking wages is essential to ending deflation and to achieving and sustaining an inflation rate of 2% in a stable manner.
Members of a freelancers group opposing Japan's new invoice system hand documents requesting its abolition to Finance Ministry officials in Tokyo on Nov. 13.
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2023
Manga artists and taxi drivers hit as tax frustrations mount
About 4.6 million businesses that were previously exempt from paying sales tax have been impacted by a new invoice system.
Commuters at Tokyo Station earlier this month. A Reuters poll showed six out of 10 economists expect major firms' pay hikes in 2024 to exceed this year's.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Nov 20, 2023
Japan's back-to-back wage bonanza would open door for BOJ exit
The news comes as the government pushes companies to hike pay to help offset rising living costs.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Number of homeless in Japan hits record low
Homeless people sleep on the street in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in August 2021.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Air China to buy 100 locally made C919 jets in $11 billion deal
A Comac C919 during an aerial display at the Singapore Airshow at Changi Exhibition Centre in Singapore in February
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Tokyo's Koto Ward by-election a race unlike any other
Natsumi Sakai, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s candidate and one of four female candidates running in the by-election, touts her experience as a cancer survivor and midwife as having prepared her to tackle issues that women currently face.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Top U.S. and China diplomats talk tough amid warnings of new ‘downward spiral’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Friday
Kyotographie's strong 12th edition shines light into the margins
Yassine Alaoui Ismaili, who goes by Yoriyas, turned to photography, shooting motion while in motion himself, after an injury forced him to give up his career as a professional breakdancer.

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