“Wage surprise” more likely to be a damp squib

Prime Minister Abe has promised to deliver a positive "wage surprise" this year by working closely with employers and trade unions. He has drawn inspiration from an agreement reached in the Netherlands in the early 1980s. But conditions in Japan are far less conducive to delivering an agreement between workers and employers that can hold. In particular, Japan's trade unions have significantly less clout than many of their European counterparts.