Another year of likely big pay rises at big Japanese companies, says chairman of business lobby By Reuters

TOKYO (Reuters) – Big Japanese 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, pledging efforts to spread the momentum of wage growth to smaller firms.

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

“However, it is crucial for SMEs to achieve wage growth that exceeds the previous year for three consecutive years,” Niinami said.

Japanese companies have agreed to an average wage increase of 5.1 percent in 2024, the biggest increase in three decades, according to Rengo, the country’s largest union. Rengo is asking for a salary increase of at least 5% in 2025.