2025 Japan Spring Festival Situation

Political commentary
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According to Japan’s TBS Television, the Japan Federation of Labour Unions announced the initial results of the 2025 spring labor-management negotiations (“Harutou”) on April 14: the average wage increase rate for enterprises reached 5.46%, up 0.18 percentage points from the same period last year, surpassing 5% for the second consecutive year, and hitting the highest level in nearly 34 years. On the surface, this appears to be a victory for workers fighting for their rights; but in reality, despite nominal wage increases, Japanese workers’ real wages have declined for three consecutive years amid rising prices. It is reported that from April this year, about 4,000 types of food will see a new round of price hikes, further eroding workers’ meager incomes.

The current spring struggle, under the control of the Yellow Labor Union, has increasingly lost its combative nature, turning into a peaceful petition to capitalists. The wage increases this time are precisely the “results” obtained through this “petition.” As the report states: “In large enterprises such as Toyota, Hitachi, and Tokyu Corporation, due to strong performance, most companies agreed to the union’s full wage increase demands.” This “result” is actually capitalists extracting huge surplus value, then selectively distributing a small part of it to lull workers’ fighting spirit and divert their attention. Meanwhile, another report also reveals very clearly the purpose behind capitalists agreeing to wage hikes in the spring struggle.

The report states, “In 2025, the ‘Harutou’ is crucial for Japan because whether wage increases continue will determine if Japan’s hard-won moderate re-inflation can persist, and whether Japan’s monetary normalization will proceed smoothly.” It is evident that this seemingly insignificant wage increase in the spring struggle is merely a pretext for capitalists to stimulate domestic demand and consume excess goods. On the other hand, wage hikes also mean ongoing inflation, continuously suppressing workers’ real wages.

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The spring struggle of the Japanese working class was originally like the struggles of the working class in other countries; it was an activity of all workers, where workers took to the streets to demonstrate and pressure the government to fight for their legitimate rights and to increase wages. However, up to now, it has become a form that has nothing to do with the workers. Before the spring struggle, it was nothing more than so-called worker representatives, who were actually the labor aristocracy meeting with capitalists in conference rooms to decide how to improve workers’ treatment. The lives of the workers have thus absurdly been tied to the negotiation rooms of the labor aristocracy and the capitalist bosses.

Moreover, in recent years, the wage increase rate in Japan’s spring struggle has actually been generally low, completely unable to compare with the wage increases that the working class in some other countries have fought for themselves. Specifically, last year, American truck drivers went on strike, and eventually the union reached an agreement with the capitalists for a wage increase of more than 60%. But in recent years, the wage increase rate in Japan’s spring struggle has only been a few percent. This wage increase rate cannot be compared at all with the inflation rate of daily necessities in Japan. Within just the past few months, the price of rice in Japan has almost nearly doubled, and daily foods such as eggs and vegetables have also undergone significant price hikes. In the face of such inflation, a wage increase of a few percent has little significance.