DHAKA: Toyota Motor Corp said it will give its Japan-based workers their biggest pay raise in 21 years in the year starting in April, heeding a government call to bolster the economy by sharing its surging profit with workers.

Toyota will raise its monthly base pay for workers by 2,700 yen on average, or about 0.8 percent of total monthly pay, marking the first increase in base wages in six years but falling short of its union`s demand for a 4,000 yen increase.

Many of Japan’s leading industries announced the results of annual wage negotiations on Wednesday, amid pressure from prime minister Shinzo Abe for generous raises that could boost household spending and help to pull the world’s third-biggest economy out of two decades of deflation.

‘There is a certain role that (Toyota’s) labour and management are expected to fulfil in order for the Japanese economy to step out of deflation and attain a virtuous cycle,’ Toyota Senior Managing Officer Naoki Miyazaki said at the auto maker’s central Japan headquarters, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1538 HRS, MAR 12, 2014