Under the new deal, workers will receive a 7.5% wage rise backdated to July 1st, plus a housing allowance.

The number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits dropped by 13, 000 to 4.48 million in the week ended Aug. 7, from 4.49 million the prior week.

Starting this year, families began receiving monthly allowances of 13,000 yen ($150) per child, and fees for public high school, which ran at around $115 a month, were scrapped.