If Aso follows through with the request, it will represent the full application of his prime ministerial authority to raising corporate wages across the nation, the sources said.
In addition to higher wages to spur the anemic economy, the government appears ready to implement a long-promised fiscal stimulus policy of handing out cash gifts worth a total of ¥2 trillion to all households across the nation.
In October, the government said that it would ask the business community to comply with the unions’ requests for higher wages as part of the government’s package of additional economic stimulus measures.
The business community is apparently reluctant to comply with such a request in light of Japan’s deteriorating economic conditions.
But Aso’s upcoming bargaining with the business leaders may have the effect of softening or eradicating the business leaders’ expected resistance to union wage demands, the sources added.
