Summer bonuses hit nine-year high at major Japanese companies

Tokyo: Summer bonuses continue to grow at major Japanese companies, this year rising 1.4 per cent on-year to the highest level since 2007, according to Health Ministry data released on Friday.
Bonuses for the 374 companies with available data were on average 843,577 yen ($8,250) this summer, just shy of levels nine years ago when additional compensation was at its highest on record. Services and energy producers both saw more than a 15 per cent increase in bonuses, but precision-instruments manufacturers cut theirs by 19 per cent on average and steelmakers decreased theirs by 13 per cent.
Summer bonus amounts have climbed for four years in a row since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came into power in late 2012, and after the Bank of Japan introduced record monetary stimulus measures. The growth has been slowing, though. In 2014, summer bonuses surged 7.3 per cent from a year earlier. There are also year-end bonuses. Last year, they rose 3.7 per cent from the end of 2014 to 830,434 yen, according to the ministry.