The focus of this year's spring labor union is sustainable wage increases, including for small and medium-sized enterprises. A private survey found that more than half of the companies that did not raise wages answered that they were not able to pass on the cost increases.
The survey was conducted by the private research firm Tokyo Shoko Research over the Internet this month, as spring labor negotiations are in full swing. The challenge is whether the increase in labor costs can be passed on to prices, the survey found.