By the mid-1980s, unionized Japanese workers had achieved good job security and comfortable wages, but the national labor federations worried that they did not have enough political power. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had dominated Japanese politics since 1955, paid more attention to the needs of famers and corporations than to labor. So, in 1989 the labor federations joined together into a new federation called Rengō (Nihon Rōdō Kumiai Sōrengōkai, or Japan Trade Union Confederation) to support political candidates favorable to labor, regardless of which political party they belonged to. The new reform spirit of Rengō helped bring about an election loss for the LDP in 1993, for the first time in nearly four decades. However, in subsequent elections the unions participating in Rengō could not agree on candidates to support and Rengō's political power has weakened. Click on DOCUMENTS, below, to see a list of unions that belong to Rengō.