Japanese blue-chip firms announced wage hikes on Wednesday that topped increases last year, but overall pay raises across corporate Japan are not expected to offset higher costs of living for workers or be enough to drive a sustainable economic recovery. Major exporters like Toyota Motor Corp were responding for a second year to public calls from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government for help in generating a virtuous cycle of higher profits, wages and prices to decisively end two decades of deflation and stop-start growth.