Economic struggle of the working class of Japan

Hartford Web Publishing is not the author of the documents in World History Archives and does not presume to validate their accuracy or authenticity nor to release their copyright.

Workers get the shaft in Mitsui coal mine closure
Asahi Shumbun, 18 February 1997. In 1960, Mitsui Coal Mining Co.'s Miike mine in Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, was the scene of the biggest labor dispute in Japan's postwar history.
Unions win real increases
ICEM Update, 10 June 1997. Statistics compiled by the ICEM Japanese Affiliates' Federation (ICEM-JAF) for affiliated unions in its sectors.
The Future of Trade Unions in Japan
By Hiroyuki Fujimura, Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Hosei University, Japan Institute of Labour, 1 July 1998. Chief executive officers in Japanese companies have unchecked power to make decisions. Unions might be the last resort for checking top management policy-making. We may be witnessing the emergence of a new form of corporate governance.
Japan's labour unions warn of militant action
By Anthony Rowley, Labor News, 23 March 1999. As companies such as Sony Corp begin shedding thousands of workers under corporate restructurings amid a prolonged economic slump, Japan's normally docile labour unions have warned of militant action if lifetime employment becomes a thing of the past.
Workers must fight against layoffs
By Kazuo Kojima, Mainichi Shimbun, Friday 17 December 1999. The heady days of unionism are long gone, and in recent years, tens of thousands of the nation's workers have been sacked under the guise of restructuring, or risutora in Japanese.
The rise and fall of Japan's labor unions
By Scott Gordon, Daily Yomiuri, 5 March 2000. As historian Andrew Gordon makes perfectly clear, the steel unions of today would never strike to enforce and win their demands, because management has completely co-opted and subjugated the union and the workers.
Weak unions, weak economy
By Kiroku Hanai, The Japan Times, Monday 25 September 2000. In hard times such as these, unions should be a bastion of support for rank-and-file workers. In reality, however, workers are generally unwilling to resolve their problems through their unions.