Labour unions emerged in Japan in the second half of the Meiji period, after 1890, as the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization. Until 1945, however, the labour movement remained weak, impeded by a lack of legal rights, anti-union legislation,

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the U.S. Occupation authorities initially encouraged the formation of independent unions, but reversed course as part of broader anti-Communist measures. and membership rapidly rose to 5 million by February 1947. and subsequently declined to 16.3% as of 2023. from which emerged the present configuration of three major labour union federations, along with other smaller national union organizations.

National labor union federations

In 2005, 43,096 labour unions in Japan, with a combined membership of 7,395,666 workers,

  • Zenroren: National Confederation of Trade Unions (全国労働組合総連合 Zenkoku Rōdōkumiai Sōrengō) 7,531 unions, 730,102 members
  • Zenrokyo: National Trade Union Council (全国労働組合連絡協議会 Zenkoku Rōdōkumiai Renraku Kyōgi-kai) 1,625 unions, 158,342 members

A further 19,139 unions, with a combined membership of 2,842,521 workers, were affiliated to other national labour organizations. the National Federation of Construction Workers' Unions (717,908) Federation of City Bank Employees' Unions (105,950), Zendenko Roren (53,853), National Federation of Agricultural Mutual Aid Societies Employees' Unions (45,830), All Japan Council of Optical Industry Workers' Union (44,776), National Teachers Federation of Japan (42,000), Faculty and Staff Union of Japanese Universities (38,500), and All Aluminium Industrial Workers Union (36,000).

History

Meiji period to 1945

thumb|300px|The Ashio copper mine (c1895). A three-day riot in 1907 at the Furukawa Company's massive mine was violently suppressed by troops.

In the first half of the Meiji period (1868–1912), most labour disputes occurred in the mining and textile industries and took the form of small-scale strikes and spontaneous riots. The second half of the period witnessed rapid industrialization, the development of a capitalist economy, and the transformation of many feudal workers to wage labour. The use of strike action increased, and 1897, with the establishment of a union for metalworkers, saw the beginnings of the modern Japanese trade-union movement. From 1918 to 1921, a wave of major industrial disputes marked the peak of organized labour power. A prolonged economic slump that followed brought cutbacks in employment in heavy industry. In the early 1920s, ultra-cooperative unionists proposed the fusion of labour and management interests, heightening political divisions within the labour movement and precipitating the departure of left wing unions from Sōdōmei in 1925. The union movement has remained divided between right wing (“cooperative”) unions and left wing unions ever since.

Hampered by their weak legal status, the absence of a right to bargain collectively with employers, had succeeded in organizing only 7.9% of the labour force by 1931. 5% of unionized workers were members of the anarchist union federations Zenkoku Jiren and Nihon Jikyō.

In 1940, the government dissolved the existing unions and absorbed them into the Industrial Association for Serving the Nation (Sangyo Hokokukai or Sampō), the government-sponsored workers' organization, as part of a national reorganization of all civil organizations under central government direction

By 1960, Japan's labor unions were at the height of their power, and served as the backbone of the massive 1960 Anpo protests against revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. However, that same year, the Japanese labor movement suffered a devastating defeat in the climactic Miike Coal Mine strike at the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine in Kyushu, marking the high-water mark of labor militancy in Japan.

Until the mid-1980s, Japan's 74,500 trade unions were represented by four main labor federations: the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan (日本労働組合総評議会 nihon rōdō kumiai sōhyōgikai, commonly known as Sōhyō), with 4.4 million members—a substantial percentage representing public sector employees; the Japan Confederation of Labour (zen nihon rodo sodomei, commonly known as Dōmei), with 2.2 million members; the Association of Neutral Labour Unions (:ja:中立労連 Chūritsu Rōren), with 1.6 million members; and the National Federation of Industrial Organizations (:ja:新産別 Shinsanbetsu), with only 61,000 members.

In 1987 Dōmei and Chūritsu Rōren were dissolved and amalgamated into the newly established Japanese Trade Union Confederation (連合 RENGO), and in 1990 Sōhyō affiliates merged with Rengo.

Membership

The rate of labor union membership declined considerably after its postwar high to 16.3% as of 2023.