The Central Minimum Wages Council convened a subcommittee meeting on the 10th, launching full-scale discussions on guidelines for revising the minimum wage in fiscal 2026. Against a backdrop of soaring prices, labor and management agreed on the need to raise the minimum wage to a certain extent. However, there remains a wide gap over which data to prioritize when deciding the size of the increase, which is expected to become a point of contention going forward. The current national average minimum wage stands at 1,121 yen.