Japanese Labor Unions

A debate regarding the long term viability of the Japanese labor movement has been underway for a least a decade. Initially, attention focused on the changes in the economic, political and social structure of Japanese society - factors that are outside of the control of any participant in the labor relations system. Unlike Western nations such as the United States and Britain, Japan's labor unions have not attracted the substantial increase in employer hostility that characterizes labor - management relationships in the United States and Britain.

According to an essay written by Sadahiko Inoue published on the International Institute for Labor Studies website, The Japanese trade union movement was unified in 1989 when Rengo (the Japanese Trade Union Confederation) was formed as a national center of trade unions representing the overwhelming majority of unionized workers. Rengo has been seeking to promote a flexible trade union movement which still draws on the traditions and historical evolution of Japanese trade unionism until the 1980s. In the course of social and political developments during the 1990s, it can be said that trade unions have become more influential than in the past. Several unions have been tackling the issue of part-time and temporary workers, but they have been generally unsuccessful, notably in their efforts to organize such workers. Regarding the practice of long-term employment, while some people urge Japan to adopt American-type management pra

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ement have broken down in the company, which is considered to be a serious problem that management must rectify. If labor and management are unable to work out their differences, labor and management will appeal to the federal Labor Relations Commission. This Commission provides mediation and arbitration services. At the time DeMente's book was published in 1994, less than 25 percent of Japan's workforce was unionized and the ratio between union and non-union workers had been dropping about one percent a year. Trade unions in Japan do not have a future in Japan because the typical Japanese employer large enough to have its own enterprise union is likely to offer a pledge of lifetime employment to workers (DeMente). The book: "Japan's Top Management from the Inside" by Makiko Yamada includes an explanation about how the postwar labor practice of lifetime employment became institutionalized in Japanese business and how this practice in particular has contributed to the economic growth of Japan to its present status as the second largest and second most powerful economy in the world. The promise of lifetime employment enabled Japanese companies to receive an unprecedented level of cooperation from their workers including unioniz

Category: Foreign - J