Nearly 90 Percent of Firms Raise Starting Pay for 2027 Graduates in Talent War

A Mynavi survey delivers the number: 89.1% of companies raised starting salaries for 2027 graduate hiring. When nine in ten firms reprice simultaneously, that is a reset of the market-clearing wage—demographics keep shrinking the graduate supply, and the talent war shows up directly on the price list. The ripple matters more than the headline: higher entry pay squeezes employees three-to-five years in via wage inversion, forcing companies to rebuild entire salary curves. This is precisely the micro-evidence the 'virtuous wage-price cycle' thesis needs, and the BOJ watches it as closely as inflation itself. Read alongside the projected 3.84-million-worker shortfall by 2035, Japan's seller's labor market keeps deepening. For foreign professionals eyeing Japan, pricing power improves in parallel; for employers, Japan's rising personnel cost curve belongs in every expansion model.