Japan firms promise Abe 'utmost efforts' to lift wages, urge reforms

[TOKYO] Japanese business leaders have promised Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to make the "utmost efforts"to raise wages and allow suppliers to pass on higher costs while urging labour reforms, according to a draft agreement between the government, business and labour groups.

Mr Abe and business leaders, including Sadayuki Sakakibara, chairman of Toray Industries Inc and the Keidanren business lobby, are scheduled to announce the plan on Tuesday, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters.

The agreement, the broad terms of which were first reported by the Yomiuri newspaper on Saturday, were hammered out in advance of the election landslide that returned Abe and his ruling coalition to power on Sunday.

REUTERS