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Labour unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
emerged in Japan in the second half of the
Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
, after 1890, as the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization.Nimura, K
''The Formation of Japanese Labor Movement: 1868-1914''
(Translated by Terry Boardman). Retrieved 11 June 2011
Until 1945, however, the labour movement remained weak, impeded by a lack of legal rights,Cross Currents
Labor unions in Japan.
CULCON. Retrieved 11 June 2011
anti-union legislation, management-organized factory councils, and political divisions between “cooperative” and radical unionists.Weathers, C. (2009). Business and Labor. In William M. Tsutsui, ed., ''A Companion to Japanese History'' (2009) pp. 493-510. In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the U.S. Occupation authorities initially encouraged the formation of independent unions, but reversed course as part of broader anti-Communist measures. The legislation was passed that enshrined the right to organize, and membership rapidly rose to 5 million by February 1947. The organization rate peaked at 55.8% in 1949 and subsequently declined to 16.3% as of 2023. The labour movement went through a process of reorganization from 1987 to 1991 from which emerged the present configuration of three major labour union federations, along with other smaller national union organizations.


National labor union federations

In 2005, 43,096
labour unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
in
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, with a combined membership of 7,395,666 workers, belonged either directly, or indirectly through labour union councils, to the three main labour union federations: *
Rengo Rengo is a city and commune located in the Zona Central of Chile, situated in the Cachapoal Province of the O'Higgins Region at a distance of south of the city of Rancagua and south of the national capital Santiago. It was named after the c ...
: Japanese Trade Union Confederation ( 日本労働組合総連合会 ''Nihon Rōdōkumiai Sōrengō-kai'') 33,940 unions, 6,507,222 members *
Zenroren The , commonly known in Japanese as , is a national trade union center. Founding and history Zenroren was founded on November 21, 1989. Party affiliation Zenroren is not affiliated to any political party, but is generally aligned with the Japan ...
: National Confederation of Trade Unions ( 全国労働組合総連合 ''Zenkoku Rōdōkumiai Sōrengō'') 7,531 unions, 730,102 members * Zenrokyo: National Trade Union Council ( 全国労働組合連絡協議会 ''Zenkoku Rōdōkumiai Renraku Kyōgi-kai'') 1,625 unions, 158,342 members A further 19,139 unions, with a combined membership of 2,842,521 workers, were affiliated to other national labour organizations. The labour union organizations included (with membership figures for 2001/2002) the National Federation of Construction Workers' Unions (717,908) Federation of City Bank Employees' Unions (105,950), Zendenko Roren (53,853), National Federation of Agricultural Mutual Aid Societies Employees' Unions (45,830), All Japan Council of Optical Industry Workers' Union (44,776), National Teachers Federation of Japan (42,000), Faculty and Staff Union of Japanese Universities (38,500), and All Aluminium Industrial Workers Union (36,000).


History


Meiji period to 1945

In the first half of the
Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
(1868–1912), most labour disputes occurred in the
mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...
and
textile industries The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, Production (economics), production and distribution of textiles: yarn, textile, cloth and clothing. Industry process Cotton manufacturing Cotton is the world's most important natu ...
and took the form of small-scale strikes and spontaneous
riot A riot or mob violence is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The p ...
s. The second half of the period witnessed rapid
industrialization Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...
, the development of a
capitalist economy Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by a n ...
, and the transformation of many
feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
workers to
wage labour Wage labour (also wage labor in American English), usually referred to as paid work, paid employment, or paid labour, refers to the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour power under ...
. The use of strike action increased, and 1897, with the establishment of a union for metalworkers, saw the beginnings of the modern Japanese trade-union movement. In February 1898, engineers and stokers at the Japan Railway Company successfully struck for improvement of status and higher wages. In the same year, ships' carpenters in
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
and
Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...
formed a union, and a dispute followed with demands for higher wages. 1907 saw the greatest number of disputes in a decade, with large-scale riots at Japan's two leading copper mines, Ashio and Besshi, which were only suppressed by the use of troops. None of these early unions were large (the metalworkers union had 3,000 members, only 5% of workers employed in the industry), or lasted longer than three or four years, largely due to strong opposition from employers and the government's anti-union policies, notably the Public Order and Police Provisions Law (1900). One labour organization that did survive was the Friendly Society ('' Yuaikai''), formed in 1912 by Bunji Suzuki, which became Japan's first durable union and was renamed the Japan Federation of Labour (''Nihon Rōdō Sodomei'' or ''Sōdōmei'') in 1921. Two years later it had a membership of 100,000 in 300 unions. From 1918 to 1921, a wave of major industrial disputes marked the peak of organized labour power. A prolonged economic slump that followed brought cutbacks in employment in
heavy industry Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...
. In the early 1920s, ultra-cooperative unionists proposed the fusion of labour and management interests, heightening political divisions within the labour movement and precipitating the departure of
left wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politic ...
unions from Sōdōmei in 1925. The union movement has remained divided between
right wing Right-wing politics is the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position b ...
(“cooperative”) unions and left wing unions ever since. After the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, there were many attempts to establish a trade union law to protect the rights of workers to organize themselves, including a Department of Home Affairs bill in 1925, which would have prevented employers from discharging workers for belonging to a union, or requiring workers to quit (or not join) a union. But these bills never became law. Hampered by their weak legal status, the absence of a right to bargain collectively with employers, and the setting up of management-organized factory councils, over 800 unionsBenson, J. (3 Nov 2008)
The Development and Structure of Japanese Enterprise Unions.
''The Asia-Pacific Journal.'' Retrieved 15 June 2011
had succeeded in organizing only 7.9% of the labour force by 1931. Of these unions, the majority were organized along industrial or craft lines, with about one-third organized on an enterprise basis. 5% of unionized workers were members of the
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
union federations ''
Zenkoku Jiren The All-Japan Libertarian Federation of Labour Unions (), commonly abbreviated as ''Zenkoku Jiren'' (), was a Japanese people, Japanese anarchism, anarchist national trade union center, trade union federation. Its roots lay in the anarcho-synd ...
'' and ''
Nihon Jikyō The Libertarian Federal Council of Labour Unions of Japan (), commonly abbreviated as ''Nihon Jikyō'' () or more simply ''Jikyō'' (), was a Japanese people, Japanese anarcho-syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalist national trade union center, trade ...
''. In 1940, the government dissolved the existing unions and absorbed them into the Industrial Association for Serving the Nation (''Sangyo Hokokukai'' or ''Sampō''), the government-sponsored workers' organization, as part of a national reorganization of all civil organizations under central government direction and as a means of controlling radical elements in the workforce. Nonetheless, employees could still bargain and gain welfare benefits on a local level. Sampō remained in existence at the end of the war.


1945 to the present

After the
Japanese surrender The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, ending the war. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was incapable of condu ...
on 15 August 1945, allied forces, mostly American, rapidly began arriving in Japan. Almost immediately, the occupiers began an intensive program of legal changes designed to democratize Japan. One action was to ensure the creation of a Trade Union Law to allow for the first time workers to organize, strike, and bargain collectively, which was passed by the Diet of Japan on 22 December 1945. While the law was created while Japan was under occupation, the law itself was largely a Japanese work. It was put together by a large legal advisory commission headed by the legal scholar Suehiro Izutaro. The commission was quite large, consisting of "three Welfare ministry bureaucrats and two scholars, a steering committee of 30 members (including the communist firebrand Kyuichi Tokuda), and an overall membership of more than 130 members representing universities, corporations, political parties, the bureaucracy, social workers, and labor." In addition to the Trade Union Act of 1945, the postwar
constitution of Japan The Constitution of Japan is the supreme law of Japan. Written primarily by American civilian officials during the occupation of Japan after World War II, it was adopted on 3 November 1946 and came into effect on 3 May 1947, succeeding the Meij ...
, which became law on 3 May 1947 includes article 28, which guarantees the right of workers to participate in a trade union. On 1 June 1949, a new version of the
Trade Union Law Labour laws (also spelled as labor laws), labour code or employment laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship be ...
was enacted. It has since been amended in 1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1959, 1962, 1966, 1971, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1993, 1999, 2002, 2004, and 2005.Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Trainin
Trade Union Law
By 1960, Japan's labor unions were at the height of their power, and served as the backbone of the massive 1960 Anpo protests against revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. However, that same year, the Japanese labor movement suffered a devastating defeat in the climactic Miike Coal Mine strike at the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine in Kyushu, marking the high-water mark of labor militancy in Japan. Until the mid-1980s, Japan's 74,500
trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
s were represented by four main labor federations: the
General Council of Trade Unions of Japan A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED Online. Ma ...
(日本労働組合総評議会 ''nihon rōdō kumiai sōhyōgikai'', commonly known as
Sōhyō The , often abbreviated to , was a left-leaning union confederation. Founded in 1950, it was the largest labor federation in Japan for several decades. Origins In the immediate aftermath of Japan's defeat in World War II, the United States-led Oc ...
), with 4.4 million members—a substantial percentage representing public sector employees; the Japan Confederation of Labour (''zen nihon rodo sodomei'', commonly known as Dōmei), with 2.2 million members; the Association of Neutral Labour Unions ( :ja:中立労連 Chūritsu Rōren), with 1.6 million members; and the National Federation of Industrial Organizations ( :ja:新産別 Shinsanbetsu), with only 61,000 members. In 1987 Dōmei and Chūritsu Rōren were dissolved and amalgamated into the newly established
Japanese Trade Union Confederation Rengo is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune located in the Zona Central, Chile, Zona Central of Chile, situated in the Cachapoal Province of the O'Higgins Region at a distance of south of the city of Rancagua and sout ...
( 連合
RENGO Rengo is a city and commune located in the Zona Central of Chile, situated in the Cachapoal Province of the O'Higgins Region at a distance of south of the city of Rancagua and south of the national capital Santiago. It was named after the c ...
), and in 1990 Sōhyō affiliates merged with Rengo.


Membership

The rate of labor union membership declined considerably after its postwar high to 16.3% as of 2023. The continuing long-term reduction in union membership was caused by several factors, including the restructuring of Japanese industry away from
heavy industries Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...
. Many people entering the workforce in the 1980s joined smaller companies in the
tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...
, where there was a general disinclination toward joining labor organizations. Any regular employee below the rank of section chief is eligible to become a union officer. Management, however, often pressures the workers to select favored employees. Officers usually maintain their seniority and tenure while working exclusively on union activities and while being paid from the union's accounts, and union offices are often located at the factory site. Many union officers go on to higher positions within the corporation if they are particularly effective, but few become active in organized labor activities at the national level. The relationship between the typical labor union and the company is unusually close. Both white- and blue-collar workers join the union automatically in most major companies. Temporary and subcontracting workers are excluded, and managers with the rank of section manager and above are considered part of management. In most corporations, however, many of the managerial staff are former union members. In general, Japanese unions are sensitive to the economic health of the company, and company management usually briefs the union membership on the state of corporate affairs.


Negotiations and actions

Local labor unions and work unit unions, rather than the federations, conducted the major
collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and labour rights, rights for ...
. Unit unions often banded together for wage negotiations, but federations did not control their policies or actions. Federations also engaged in political and public relations activities. During prosperous times, the spring labor offensives are highly ritualized affairs, with banners, sloganeering, and dances aimed more at being a show of force than a crippling job action. Meanwhile, serious discussions take place between the union officers and corporate managers to determine pay and benefit adjustments. During downturns, or when management tries to reduce the number of permanent employees,
strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...
s often occur. The number of working days lost to labor disputes peaked in the economic turmoil of 1974 and 1975 at around 9 million workdays in the two-year period. In 1979, however, there were fewer than 1 million days lost. Since 1981 the average number of days lost per worker each year to disputes was just over 9% of the number lost in the United States. After 1975, when the economy entered a period of slower growth, annual wage increases moderated and labor relations were conciliatory. During the 1980s, workers received pay hikes that on average closely reflected the real growth of GNP for the preceding year. In 1989, for example, workers received an average 5.1% pay hike, while
GNP The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total amount of factor incomes earned by the residents of a country. It is equal to gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes received from n ...
growth had averaged 5% between 1987 and 1989. The moderate trend continued in the early 1990s as the country's national labor federations were reorganizing themselves.


Unions


Extant

* National Trade Union Council (Zenrokyo) * Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) * National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) * National Union of General Workers *
General Union A general union is a trade union (called ''labor union'' in American English) which represents workers from all industries and companies, rather than just one organisation or a particular sector, as in a craft union or industrial union. A gen ...
* Kyabakura Union * Japan Teachers Union (Nikkyoso) * University Teachers Union * Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union (Tozen)


Formerly extant

* Sanbetsu *
Sōhyō The , often abbreviated to , was a left-leaning union confederation. Founded in 1950, it was the largest labor federation in Japan for several decades. Origins In the immediate aftermath of Japan's defeat in World War II, the United States-led Oc ...


See also


Workplace

*
Japanese employment law Japanese labour law is the system of labour law operating in Japan. Contract and rights The scope of Japanese labour law is defined by the Japanese Civil Code. Article 622 defines contracts of employment, article 632 defines a contract for work, ...
*
Japanese work environment Many both in and outside Japan share an image of the Japanese work environment that is based on a and model used by large companies as well as a reputation of long work-hours and strong devotion to one's company. This environment is said to refl ...
*
Black company (Japanese term) A , also referred to in English as a black corporation or black business, is a Japanese term for an exploitative, sweatshop-type employment system. The term "sweatshop" is associated with manufacturing, and the garment trade in particular; howev ...


Workers

* Japanese blue collar workers *
Salaryman The term is a Japanese word for salary, salaried workers. In Japanese popular culture, it is portrayed as a white-collar worker who shows unwavering loyalty and commitment to his employer, prioritizing work over anything else, including family. ...
, Japanese white collar worker *
Office lady An office lady (), often abbreviated OL (, ), is a female office worker in Japan who performs generally pink-collar tasks such as secretarial or clerical work. Office ladies are usually full-time permanent staff, although the jobs they perform ...


Labor actions

* Anpo protests * Miike Struggle


References


Citations


Works cited

* *


External links


National


RENGO (en)ZENROREN (en)ZENROKYO (ja)


Local


General Union (Osaka and Nagoya areas) (en)Kanagawa City Union (ja)Tokyo NAMBU (ja/en)Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union (Tozen) (en)Zentoitsu Workers Union (Ueno-Okachimachi, Tokyo) (ja)
{{Asia in topic, Trade unions in Labor in Japan