Most Japanese firms plan to raise salaries by at least the same degree as last year, but even two years of wage hikes will not be enough to compensate workers for increases in the cost of living, a Reuters poll showed. Since taking office in late 2012, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has heaped pressure on businesses to lift wages – seen as essential if his stimulus policies are to succeed in boosting consumer spending and dragging the world’s third-largest economy decisively out of decades of deflation and stagnant growth.