Japan Inc to offer lowest pay rise in eight years

Demands shelved: A ground crew worker bows as an All Nippon Airways passenger aircraft taxis before departing Tokyo’s Haneda airport. Labour unions of industries hit hard by the pandemic, such as airlines, have shelved demands for base pay hikes. — AFP

TOKYO: Japanese companies are set to offer the lowest wage increases in eight years as labour talks wrapped up, in a sign the Covid-19 pandemic is putting an end to the benefits brought on by former premier Shinzo Abe’s stimulus policies.

Over the past seven years, major firms have offered pay rises of 2% or more in annual “shunto” spring wage negotiations, in a nod to government efforts to eradicate two decades of grinding deflation.