"Let us not forget macroeconomics in our argument," President Washio, January 20, Tokyo.

On January 20, RENGO leaders held a regular meeting with Nikkeiren (Japan Federation of Employers' Associations) at a Tokyo hotel before the 1999 Spring Struggle. At the meeting both RENGO and Nikkeiren each tried to claim labor and management's view on wage hike this spring. RENGO repeatedly emphasized that "management has a social responsibility to the national economy to raise wages to their proper level, which also holds true for turning the economy into plus growth." To this, Nikkeiren's Chairman Nemoto responded saying, "the stabilization of employment is important also for economic measures." His reply was a conspicuous attempt to change the subject to the employment problem, and each side's statements paralleled the other.

President Washio began his talk stressing RENGO's stance on the 1999 Spring Struggle stating, "we will consistently set up measures to protect living standards and secure working conditions from a macroeconomic point of view in this economic crisis." He also added, "the wage hike standard this year is at a level so realistic and humble that these are not feasible numbers for businesses. We should not irrelevantly dismiss demands as simply demands or answers as answers as was the practice before, but rather make efforts to reach an agreement through the use of effective collective bargaining while continuing discussions from a macroeconomic point of view."

Nikkeiren Chairman Mr. Nemoto, stressing the employment issue responded saying "Our nation's unemployment rate is below the international average because management is pushing hard for it. If one must choose between wages or employment, employment is more crucial."

Afterwards, General Secretary Sasamori explained the "RENGO White Paper" while Fukuoka Managing Director of Nikkeiren explained the "Working Group Report for Labor Problems." Strongly criticizing the part of the report that stated, "employment stabilization was the worker's greatest welfare," GS Sasamori retorted "employment is not welfare-and that any such pronouncements should be unconstitutional." He also stressed "it is important to put Japanese economic growth on 3 percentile by proper wage hikes and tax cuts."

During the exchange of opinions, RENGO displayed its stance on the 1999 Spring Struggle based on discussions regarding management responsibility, conditions in the job market and the current state of small and medium enterprise. The meeting ended with President Washio stating "managers are not apt to want to raise wages at the point of separate negotiations because Nikkeiren said that employment should come before pay hikes. (We would like to see Nikkeiren) pursue the discussions with a broader perspective."