Abstract
In the industrialized democracies, labor unions negotiate with employers and states mostly about labor conditions and social security issues by organizing workers as political leverage and seeking participation in workplace decision making. It is known that Japanese labor unions are organized as enterprise-based unions. After enjoying initial success in the immediate post-war period, workers and unions were increasingly mobilized in the service of corporate productivity, and gradually lost their power and authority at workplaces. Jun Imai confirms that a long-term decline in the power of labor unions has occurred in terms of their strength, their exercise of power in the form of labor disputes and in their participation in workplace negotiations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
On average, around 40 % of the firms have labor-management councils (surveys in 1999, 2004, 2009). About 70 % of the larger firms (with more than 1000 employees) have a council, only about 20 % of the smaller firms do (with less than 100 employees). The firms that do not establish councils tend to rely more on the less formal shokuba kondan-kai.
- 2.
Considering the fact that Japanese labor unions are very cooperative, even “discuss” could be categorized as “low participation.” I take the relatively generous “for labor unions”.
References
Araki, T. (2013). Rodo-ho, dai 2 han (Labor and employment law, 2nd edn.). Yuhikaku. Cambridge Mass. USA
Gordon, A. (1998). The wages of affluence: Labor and management in postwar Japan. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Hisamoto, N. (1998). Kigyo nai Roshi Kankei to Jinzai Keisei (Labor relation within corporation and personnel development). Kyoto Daigaku Keizaigaku sosho no. 4, Tokyo: Yuhikaku.
Hyodo, T. (1997). Rodo no Sengo-shi (Post-war history of labor). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.
Ikezoe, H. (2004). Shogaikoku no shudan-teki rodo-joken kettei shisutemu – doitsu, furansu, igirisu, amerika (Collective decision making system about labor conditions in foreign countries – The cases of Germany, France, England and the USA) (JILPT Discussion Paper 04-011).
Imai, J. (2011). The transformation of Japanese employment relations: Reform without labor. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Imai, J. (forthcoming). Are labor union movements capable in solving the problems of the ‘Gap Society’? In C. Hommerich & D. Chiavacci (eds.), Social inequality in post-growth Japan: Structure, discourse, agency under economic and demographic stagnation. London: Routledge.
Inagami, T. (2003). Kigyo Gurupu Keiei to Shukko Tenseki Kanko (Corporate group management and employee transfer practices). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.
Inagami, T., Whittaker, H. D., Oumi, N., Shinoda, T., Shimodaira, Y., & Tsujinaka, Y. (1995). Neo Koporathizumu no Kokusai Hikaku (International comparison of neo-corporatism). Tokyo: Japan Institute of Labor.
Keizer, A. (2011). Japanese unions and the organisation of non-regular employment: A step towards greater equality? In 2nd Conference Regulating for Decent Work, ILO.
Kumazawa, M. (1993). Nihon no Rodosha-zo (The portrait of Japanese workers). Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo.
Kumazawa, M. (1997). Noryoku-shugi to Kigyo-shakai (Merit Orientation and Corporate Society). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Nikkeiren. (1969). Noryoku-shugi Kanri: sono Riron to Jissen (Merit-based personnel management: Its theory and practice). Tokyo: Nikkeiren.
Schwartz, M. (1976). Radical protest and social structure: The Southern Farmers’ Alliance and Cotton Tenancy, 1880–1890. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schwartz, M., & Murray, J. (forthcoming). The rise and fall of Detroit: How the American automobile industry destroyed its capacity to compete. Book monograph under contract with the Russell Sage Foundation.
Data
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. (1972). Rodo-kumiai Kiso Chosa: jikeiretsu (Basic Survey on Labor Unions: time series data), http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/List.do?bid=000001018508&cycode=0
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. (1985). Rodo-sogi Tokei Chosa (Survey on Labor Dispute: time series data), http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/NewList.do?tid=000001014031
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. (2009). Roshi Komyunikeshon Chosa (Survey on Labor Management Communication), http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/GL08020101.do?_toGL08020101_&tstatCode=000001018360&requestSender=dsearch
Ministry of Labor. (1978). Roshi Komyunikeshon Chosa Hokoku (Report on the Survey on Labor Management Communication). Tokyo: Ministry of Labor, Statistics Bureau.
Ministry of Labor. (1985). Nihon no Roshi Komyunikeshon no Genjo (Report on the Labor Management Communication in Japan). Tokyo: Ministry of Finance Printing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Imai, J. (2016). Workers and Unions. In: Steel, G. (eds) Power in Contemporary Japan. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59193-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59193-7_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-60166-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-59193-7
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)