Zenroren report calls for struggle to win a monthly pay raise of 10,000 yen at large corporations

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Zenroren report calls for struggle to win a monthly pay raise of 10,000 yen at large corporations

Using just 1.8 percent of their internal reserves, Toyota and 100 other large corporations could give every employee a pay raise of 10,000 yen a month, says the annual report published jointly by the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and the Japan Research Institute of Labor Movement (Rodo-soken) in preparation for the 2007 Spring Struggle.

In view of the widening gap between rich and poor that is a major social issue in Japan, the "2007 White Paper on the Spring Struggle" points out that the major task is for the workers in the 2007 Spring Struggle to force major corporations to use their enormous profits to shoulder an appropriate social burden.

According to the report, Toyota Motor Corporation topped the list of 113 major corporations that increased their internal reserves by reporting 2.873 trillion yen in consolidated ordinary profits for the business year ending in March 2006.

Toyota reported 11.941 trillion yen in internal reserves, up 1.579 trillion yen from the previous year.

Canon Inc., led by Mitarai Fujio who chairs the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), reported 2.735 trillion yen in internal reserves, ranking seventh.

This shows 101 large corporations have each accumulated internal reserves amounting to more than 10 million yen per employee.

Despite these enormous earnings, 103 corporations, which account for only 73 percent of the total 143 surveyed, increased jobs, the white paper states.

"This shows that Japan's major firms have used most of their ordinary profits and internal reserves for capital investment and dividends to stockholders instead of giving workers pay raises," the report concludes.
-Akahata, December 19, 2006