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Business trends

Japanese companies dangle fatter paychecks in race for young talent

Uniqlo, Yahoo Japan and others try new hiring tactics as labor pool dwindles

Japan's young workers are finding themselves in a seller's market. 

TOKYO -- First-time employees in Japan are earning more as companies compete to hire from a shrinking labor pool, breaking with a tradition in which younger workers accepted lower compensation in exchange for job security.

Fast Retailing, which runs the Uniqlo casual apparel chain, will raise entry-level pay for incoming college graduates to 255,000 yen ($2,288) a month from 210,000 yen in spring of next year for positions that involve location transfers. The change will affect a few hundred of the roughly 650 new recruits expected to be signed on that year. There are also plans to revise compensation for new graduates employed this spring.

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