TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio expressed his determination to maintain inflation-beating wage growth at a May Day event in Tokyo on Saturday.

“We will definitely have wage hikes that outpace inflation take root next year and beyond,” Kishida said at the May Day central convention of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo.

Kishida attended the annual May Day rally for the second straight year. Last year, he became the first sitting prime minister to attend the event since ABE Shinzo did so in 2014.

For this year’s “shunto” labor-management negotiations in the country, the prime minister held three meetings of a government-labor-management panel.

Kishida apparently hopes to boost his administration, which faces sluggish public approval ratings, by focusing on wage increases that overcome rising prices.

JIJI Press