Top Japanese companies agreed to pay increases of an average 5.58% at annual labour talks that wrapped up in March, the Keidanren business lobby's preliminary data showed on Monday.

The average wage increase at the "shunto" spring wage talks this year exceeded last year's finalised 3.99% increase.

The country's largest union group Rengo said in March that Japanese firms had agreed to raise pay by 5.25% this year, the biggest rise under comparable data since 2013. (Reporting by Kentaro Sugiyama, writing by Makiko Yamazaki Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)