Japanese firms to spurn PM's call for higher wages: survey

Call centre personnel of an online brokerage company at work in Tokyo in this file photo. More than 70% of campanies survey by Reuters said they would spend cash reserves on dividends and share buybacks, with most also putting investment ahead of wage increment - Reuters Photo.

TOKYO: Major Japanese firms plan to return their excess cash to shareholders next year rather than spend it on wage rises, according to a Reuters survey, in a rebuke to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's call for employers to lift salaries.

Arresting a 17-month slide in real wages is essential if Abe's economic stimulus policies are to succeed in boosting consumption and dragging the world's third biggest economy decisively out of decades of deflation and stagnant growth.