Japan’s largest union group Rengo targets wage hikes of at least 5% for next year

It’s a bullish case scenario for the BOJ, if and only if this can be pulled off. Newly appointed Japan prime minister Ishiba will be supportive of that but as inflation stabilises, it might be tough to repeat a similar feat seen last year. For some context, Japanese firms agreed to an average 5.1% wage hike in this year’s shuntō. And since then, price pressures have abated somewhat.

Just a heads up on the timing as well, that Rengo should finalise its position some time around December. And that will be the base for which they will try and work with for next year’s spring wage negotiations. Then, we will only see the final and agreed figures come out around March.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.