Japan's smaller companies gain leeway to raise pay on steady profits

TOKYO -- Japan's small and midsize businesses have growing room to raise wages, official data published Monday suggests, stoking hopes of hikes across a wider range of companies this year.

Labor's share of value added at nonfinancial small and midsize enterprises came to 70.7% for the four quarters ended December, down 1.4 percentage points from a year earlier. The figures reflect the moving average based on Nikkei's calculations using quarterly corporate performance data released by the Ministry of Finance.