Learn About Japan > Work and Workplaces in Japan > Labor Unions > The Rise and Fall of Radical Union Activity

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Labor Unions
- Rapid Rise of Labor Unions in Japan from 1945
- Postwar Japan's first Labor Laws
- Labor Strikes and Production Control
- Bloody May Day (May 1, 1952)
- Formation of Sōhyō (Japan General Council of Trade Unions)
- The Rise and Fall of Radical Union Activity
- Enterprise Unions in Japan
- The Miike Mine Strike
- Strikes Japanese-Style
- Who Can Strike in Japan
- Kinds of Strikes in Japan
- The Spring Labor Offensive (Shuntō)
- Enterprise Union Cooperation
- Privatization of Japan National Railway
- Rengō and the Merger of Japanese Labor Federations
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Fired workers and union members being removed by police during the Red Purge.
Photo from Mainichi Shimbun.
The Rise and Fall of Radical Union Activity
Sanbetsu, the Japan Congress of Industrial Organizations (Nippon Sangyo-betsu Rodo Kumiai Kaigi), was a national labor union federation founded at the end of 1945 that had links to the newly legal Japan Communist Party. Sanbetsu helped organize workers in both private companies and the public sector, and led a series of strikes in the fall of 1946. The Occupation stopped its efforts to lead a national general strike in January 1947. Sanbetsu was weakened when its leadership was purged during the Red Purge in 1950 and managers began to dismiss labor activists with Communist Party ties.
Company managers encouraged workers to form moderate unions as an alternative to the militant Sanbetsu unions. Management then could choose to bargain only with the moderate second union. Over time, moderate unions became dominant in the majority of companies, but militant unions remained powerful in some companies and industries.
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Special Terms:
general strike
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union federation
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strike
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