Japanese companies are now raising wages to attract workers to combat labour shortages. The move is also in response to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s call on companies to hike wages. A survey of 495 big non-financial firms highlighted what appeared to be a growing willingness by companies to increase wages. The hiking of wages or starting salaries was picked by 44% of respondents as one of the multiple tactics they were adopting. The figure compares to just 25% of companies that said in a 2017 corporate survey that they would increase salaries. The dwindling pool of workers has been a concern for years in Japan and has served as a cautionary tale for other advanced economies including Europe.
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