The country’s most powerful business lobby plans to accept pay raises at high performing companies under a set of management guidelines for the 2008 annual spring labor offensive, sources said.

It will be the fourth straight year for Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) to back wage hikes in the spring offensive, known as shunto.

In a draft report on the guidelines by the Committee on Management and Labor Policy, the business group stressed the necessity of pay hikes in a stronger tone than before by referring to concerns about household budgets for the first time.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200712070090.html