Another year of big wage hikes likely at big Japan firms, business lobby chair says By Reuters

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s big companies are likely to raise wages by about 5% in 2025, the same as last year, the head of a major business lobby said on Tuesday, while pledging efforts to spread the momentum of wage growth to smaller firms.

“The growth rate of large companies is likely to be similar to last year,” Takeshi Ninami, who chairs Keizai Doyukai, one of the country’s largest business lobbies, told a news conference.

“However, it is very important for small and medium-sized companies to achieve wage growth that exceeds a year ago for three years in a row,” said Ninami.

Japanese companies have agreed to raise wages by an average of 5.1 percent in 2024, the largest increase in three decades, according to Rengo, the country’s largest union.