Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the second Government-Labor-Management Meeting for Realizing a Positive Cycle of the Economy in 2014 at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, there was a hearing on the follow-up to government-labor-management initiatives for realizing a positive cycle of the economy, and examples of initiatives at individual corporations.

Based on the discussions, the Prime Minister said,

“At today’s Government-Labor-Management Meeting, we have received a follow-up report on initiatives compiled last year.

I want the Government to implement continuous follow-up.

We have confirmed that results are being seen with regard to wage increases. For the purpose of further enlarging this movement, I believe that the enlargement of the positive cycle of the economy will accompany wage increases, and at the same time, I believe that if there are no increases in wages, we cannot achieve a positive cycle of the economy. That is how I think, and I would like to deepen the shared recognition of that idea among the Government, labor, and management.

We can now truly say that we are entering the critical period.

In order to enlarge this positive cycle of the economy that has started, we need to have discussion on both the level of wages and wage systems.

Regarding wage systems, I would like to deepen discussion from the perspective of the future of Japanese corporations while keeping in mind the examples of advanced initiatives from the global corporations that we heard about today.

Of course, on a fundamental level, how wage systems and human resources systems are set is to be determined between labor and management at each company.

On top of this, in terms of the major policy for improving the treatment of the generation raising children and those in irregular employment, as well as the shift in wage systems in line with worker productivity related to that, I want to foster a shared recognition among the Government, labor, and management.

As Chairman Yoshikawa said at the start of this Government-Labor-Management Meeting, it is a fact that we are seeing results. Having a shared recognition among the Government, labor, and management on the issues that I just spoke about will be extremely significant. I believe that we will be able to achieve major results on the positive cycle of the economy and further enriching the lives of Japan’s citizens as well.”