Abe and Kuroda mount pressure on businesses to lift wages

Boost needed: A worker cycling near a factory at the Keihin industrial zone in Kawasaki. Wages rose an average 2.1% – well short of the 3% mark economists say is the minimum needed to help drive inflation toward 2%. — Reuters

Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Bank of Japan (BoJ) governor Haruhiko Kuroda piled pressure on the country’s business leaders, urging them to lift wages to help boost the economy.

For the seventh straight year, Abe told a year-end gathering of business lobby Keidanren he hoped companies would boost wages during the annual shunto wage negotiations in spring.