Japan 2: The defeat that shaped Japan's labour relations

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Strong control over the shop floor has enabled Japanese management to modernise rapidly establishment of the Inter- facilities. national Metalworkers "Guaranteed employundermine and jobs.

all problems. They argued at will.

Although these policies tants. postal services where they 1977.

relationships which exist workers. today. Japanese companies productivity levels along- its workforce 25% unions. same period). illegal*. agreement which requires encouraged.

THe historic struggle against the new USA/ Japan security treaty broke out in 1960. The architect of this treaty was Kishi Nobuska - the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Prime Minister. He was a member of the Jojo Cabinet which launched the Pacific war in 1941. He was held as a war criminal but later released by the Americans and became leader of the LDP.

When Eisenhower was due to visit Japan to sign the treaty, millions took to the streets demanding the resignation of Kishi and his Cabinet and demanding that the treaty be not signed.

Sohyo (the major progressive trade union federation in Japan) staged strikes and students held mass demonstrations in what was the most important political struggle which had taken place since the war.

Such was the ferocity of the demonstrations that Kishi was foreed to resign and Eisenhower's visit cancelled (although of course the treaty was still ratified by the Diet):

High point The demonstrations were the highpoint of the mass political movement in Japan which had opposed the relentless drive towards remilitarisation and the integration of Japan into the US military system since independence in 1952.

1960 was also a turning point for the trade union movement.

That year saw one of the must important disputes in post-war Japan, the bitter struggle at the Miike pit of the Mitsui coal mining company. The Miike pit was highly organised and the dispute was over rationalisation, redundancy, the power of the union, and the determination of the management to reestablish control.

The union was defeated and 1,200 workers victimised.

It was a very strategic victory for Japanese capitalism. It not only strengthened the employers, but led to a very significant change in the attitude of the independent unions.

The leaders of those unions used the defeat to argue that strikes and a class struggle line on the shop floor were now impossible and far too dangerous, and that grievances must By A right wing develop- explain the ideological ment in that period was the control of Japanese capital over the workers and the situation where strikes are Federation: Japan Council more or less unknown. (IMr:.C), which included One major factor is both Sonyo and Domei certainly the enormous unions from that sector and strength of Japanese capital in that period and the success of the war strengthen the Domei line against the unions by the wallet was fully devel- Japanese employers. The other factor however is the They denounced all sophisticated labour rela"shop floor struggle" and tions policies developed by advocated consultation on the Japanese employers as La whole. that-management prerog- From a European viewatives on such questions as point, where historical big companies to reduce manning, allocation of development has made the workforce - such as work, movement of labour, workers think more readily letting workers out on loan, etc., should be respected. in class terms this is not They argued that all wage easy to understand. The claims should be "realis- main components of it workers, voluntary tic" and consistent with the are:

A). Workers' Participa- and victimisation of militIon. By this system, became dominant in the even where independent big production industries unions exists, negotiations these is sending workers on of the private sector, a are channelled towards a compulsory loan. progressive line was main- consultation system which tained by Sohyo in parts of suits the needs of the the public sector, for exam- employer - and discusses Plational Railways and on the Japanese things on the employers' years between 1975 and terms.

retained sume control of Overall, however, the The starting point of con- workers to the Isuzu 1960s were the must impor- Motor Company to work on tant period in which the sultation is acceptance of the assembly lines for three employers shaped the class management preroga- tive, and that everything is months as temporary subordinated to the restrong ideological control They established a very quirements of production. B). Paternalism. This is seem to have little problem in reducing the labour an ideology which projects over the labour force. They force when they want to.

"guaranteed employestablished unassailable Masda for example reduced ment" , company houses, side the domination of the between 1974 and 1981 trade union movement by (although its production the yellow and right wing * In fact Sohyo is bigger increased by 60% in the than Domei, but its mem In that period Sohyo gradually lost out to bership far less strategi- "jobs for life" propaganda Domei, which with the JC cally placed. Sohyo has a total mem- is still a part of the paterunions came to dominate nalistic ideology of most of steel, shipbuilding, elec- bership of 4,525,000 of the big companies.

which 1,508,000 are in the trical manufacture and car private sector and production. The most important sections of 3,017,000 in the public pany home loans. Sohyo membership were sector. left in the public sector Domei has a total mem- company can take a loan to where strikes remained bership of 2,182,000, of buy a house under an which 2,016,000 are in the These factors alone, private sector and 165,000 him or her (him jn reality) however, do not adequately in the public sector. to repay the loan from

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company loans and com- severance pay when s/he pany sports and cultural retires at the age of 55.

This ties the worker completely to the fate of the ment" is in reality a fraud. company. It becomes In the late 1970s hundreds almost impossible to resign of thousands of workers from the company since assumed tu be protected severance pay would be were thrown out of their drastically reduced, and repayment impossible.

Whilst many of the big Dismissal becomes a more companies still stick to it to frightening weapon for the some extent for their direct same reason. employees, contract labour Paternalism, which util- a huge part of the labour ises the hierarchical force — can be thrown out Japanese structure to the advantage of the employer, Many ways are found by is at the same time a subtle and effective form of intimidation.

C). The age and merit dismissal of part-timers, wage system. (Nen-ko Chingiu). dismissal of tery rary This has two elements. compulsory redundancy firstly, wages rise continuously as a result of length of service. This again has The most large scale of the effect of making it difficult for workers to leave their job, and makes sacking particularly harsh At Masda for example, ›ver 8,000 regular employ since it means going back es were transferred to to the bottom of the seniorMasda dealers for three ity pay ladder after possibly many years service.

The second, wages given Nippon Steel transferred for merit, is even more perhundreds of their steel nicious. Under this, a very large proportion of a worker's wage, varying from company to company, but in some cases as much as 50%, is determined by a performance assessment by management.

Loyalty The results of this are obvious. The wages of a worker are determined to a large degree by his or her relationship with the toreYet despite all this the man, who is the key to the assessment process. The biggest single factor in the assessment is company loyalty.

An even more effective The worker is forced to part of paternalism is com- display company loyalty in every circumstance in order A worker in a big private to advance or retain his or her rate of pay.

D). Small group activity, or QC circles.

By this system, workers, particularly in the big comM01.5 panies are organised into small groups (of between six and twenty workers) in order to discuss quality and productivity and efficiency levels. They are generally held outside of working hours every two weeks or so and are effectively compulsory - at least if they are not in all cases formally compulsory, then it is very difficult for a worker to refuse to participate.

It is very difficult for anyone in Britain who has witnessed the generally unsuccessful or partially successful attempts by British employers to use this system to understand its scale - or significance in Japan.

According to a 1976 survey by the Japan Productivity Centre, 71% of Japanese enterprises had QC circles. Among big enterprises with 10,000 or more workers the figure was 91%: In the steel industry, 30,000 QC circles are operating in 169 mills, factories and offices, involving 230,000 workers.

The small groups make workers think on behalf of the employers in both a practical and an ideological way. They breed competition between workers for the highest productivity. They divide worker from worker and give each a relationship with management.

On top of this the rate of pay is again involved, since a performance assessment for merit payment will be heavily based on the performance of a worker in the QC circle.

They are responsible to an important degree for the phenomenal productivity levels which exist, which require not only coercion but also the active cooperation which is achieved through the small groups.

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The first article of this described how the US set about helping the remilitar- isation of Japan after the trade unions were repressed pro-employer organisations