Economics
Top Union Leader Calls Abe's Growth Target `Pie in the Sky'
- Rengo says government's hopes for wage gains are unrealistic
- People `don’t know how labor negotiations actually work'
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The Abe administration’s talk of expanding the economy by 20 percent is “pie in the sky,” said Japan’s top labor union leader, who also warned that policy makers have unrealistic hopes for strong pay gains.
Rikio Kozu, the president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, said his group had adjusted its negotiating stance because it doesn’t think that the nation has fully escaped deflation. Rengo, as the confederation is known, is seeking an increase of “about” 2 percent in monthly base wages for 2016 after falling short this year in a push for hikes of "at least" that amount.