Companies in Japan offer extra pay to help workers deal with inflation

Taro Saito of the NLI Research Institute said the emergency pay from the companies “helps workers’ life and maintains their motivation to work”. 

However, he said that support for workers should be reflected in their wages. “Since corporate performances have generally been strong, wages should be increased in the next ‘shunto’ (labour-management negotiations).”

Employees who have been working at Kenmin Foods, a Kobe-based producer of rice noodles, for a year or more received 50,000 yen (US$341), while those who worked there for less than a year were paid 10,000 yen (US$68) to 30,000 yen (US$204). The allowance was provided to all employees, regardless of whether they were regular employees or contract workers.

READ: Japan’s top business lobby urges firms to raise wages

Similarly, major IT firm Cybozu Inc announced in July that it would provide a one-time allowance of up to 150,000 yen (US$1,022) to each of its 1,000 or so employees, both domestic and foreign, while Livlan Co, a Tokyo-based rental apartment developer, paid up to 100,000 yen (US$682) in an inflation allowance to all employees at the end of September.

Also jumping on the bandwagon is Valtes Co, a Tokyo-based software testing company, which started paying a special allowance of 30,000 yen (US$204) to both regular and contract employees, reported The Asahi Shimbun.