TOKYO: An increasing number of major companies in Japan are reaching early deals with their labor unions on large pay hikes in this year’s “shunto” spring wage negotiations.

These companies include not only automakers and other manufacturers but also restaurant and other service operators and retailers, reflecting a recovery in earnings from the COVID-19 crisis and a sense of crisis over labor shortages.

Zensho Holdings Co., the operator of Sukiya beef-on-rice and other restaurant chains, will raise salaries of regular employees by 12.2 pct on average, in a bid to secure highly skilled workers for overseas expansion.

Among other restaurant operators, Yoshinoya Holdings Co. will increase wages by 8.91 pct on average, and Mos Food Services Inc., which owns the Mos Burger chain, will raise wages by 8 pct on average, including its first pay scale increase on record.

“With the service industry facing a chronic shortage of workers, we want to retain our workers by improving working conditions,” said a Yoshinoya Holdings public relations official.

In the retail industry, Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores Co., a unit of J. Front Retailing Co., will implement its first monthly pay scale increase, of 20,000 yen, or 6.1 pct, since the management integration of Daimaru Inc. and Matsuzakaya Holdings Co. in 2007.

Among major electronics retailers, Nojima Corp. decided in December last year to raise its monthly pay scale by 10,000 yen.

Companies in the restaurant and retail sectors, which were hit hard by the pandemic, are now rushing to raise wages to secure talented workers as their earnings are rapidly recovering, partly thanks to a recovery in the number of visitors from overseas.

In this year’s shunto negotiations, many labor unions have demanded record pay increases against the backdrop of rising prices.

In the manufacturing industry, many companies offered to fully accept pay hike demands from their labor unions ahead of Wednesday, when many major firms will give their responses to labor union requests.

Among automakers, Honda Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. offered to fully accept demands from their labor unions in the first round of wage talks.

Suzuki Motor Corp. offered to increase wages by at least 10 pct, higher than the monthly pay hike of 21,000 yen demanded by its labor union. Toyota Motor Corp. is in talks with its union, which has demanded monthly pay increases ranging from 7,940 yen to 28,440 yen per worker.

Labor unions at major electronics makers are holding last-minute negotiations, requesting pay scale hikes of 13,000 yen while setting a minimum of 10,000 yen to avoid a strike.

JIJI Press