March 12 (Bloomberg) — Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to increase base wages in Japan for the first time since 2008 as the nation's largest company heads for record profits.

The average Toyota Motor Workers' Union member will earn 2,700 yen ($26) more in base pay per month, Senior Managing Officer Naoki Miyazaki told reporters today. That's 0.8 percent of last year's average salary and below the 4,000 yen the union was asking for.

While a weaker yen has helped Toyota forecast a record 1.9 trillion yen profit for the year ending March 31, the raise comes as Japanese companies brace for next month's sales-tax increase, the first in 17 years. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been pressing employers to increase pay for workers to help end more than 15 years of deflation.

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