Japan Wages Revised to 0.4% Rise, Helping Consumers

By Toru Fujioka

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's wages rose for a sixth month in June, revised figures showed today, as companies paid workers more bonuses than initially estimated.

Monthly wages, including overtime and bonuses, climbed 0.4 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 0.6 percent drop reported last month, the Labor Ministry said in Tokyo today.

The gains may not be enough to provide relief to consumers, whose battle with record energy prices earlier this year has pushed sentiment to a record low. Households pared spending for a fourth month in June, and will probably keep cutting back as dwindling corporate profits dim job prospects.

``The increase in wages is providing support for households, but it may not be enough to offset the impact from high oil and food prices,'' said Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist at Credit Suisse Group AG. in Tokyo. ``Downside risks for wage growth are increasing as high energy costs squeeze profits.''

A 0.9 percent increase in bonuses led to the increase in wages, said Akira Motokawa, head of the Labor Ministry's statistics division. He said the figure is ``volatile'' and isn't an indication that extra pay is on an upward trend.

Summer bonuses at the country's biggest companies, which tend to pay more than their smaller counterparts, dropped this year for the first time since 2002, according to a survey by the Keidanren business lobby.

To contact the reporter on this story: Toru Fujioka in Tokyo at tfujioka1@bloomberg.net