was a Japanese trade union leader. He served as the first secretary-general of the

General Council of Trade Unions of Japan A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...

(Sōhyō) from 1951 to 1955. A charismatic figure, Takano succeeded in instilling a wide-ranging social activism into Sōhyō's organizational culture.

Early life

Minoru Takano was born in the Uchisaiwai district of the former Kōjimachi ward of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

on January 27, 1901. In 1921, he enrolled in the Department of Applied Chemistry at

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

, where he immediately became involved in socialist activism. In 1922, while still a college student, he helped co-found the

Japan Communist Party The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party advocates the establishment of a democra ...

(JCP). However, in 1924, he was arrested for his role in the "First JCP Incident" of 1923 and was subsequently expelled from Waseda. Thereafter, he became heavily involved in the labor movement.

Early labor activism

By 1929, Takano had risen to become secretary-general of the Tokyo Publisher's Union. In 1934, he participated in foundation of the National Council of Japanese Trade Unions (Zenhyō), serving for nine years as its organizational director and head of publications. In these roles, he became heavily involved in labor organizing, which earned him the ire of the militarist regime and led him to be included among the left-wing activists arrested in the

Popular Front Incident The refers to the Imperial Japanese government's suppression of a perceived threat from the political left after the fall of Nanjing during the Shōwa period. During the incident, approximately 400 people were arrested by the authorities between ...

of 1937. Takano spent three years in prison, contracting a case of persistent tuberculosis that would shadow his health for the remainder of his life. By the time he was released in 1940, amidst the spiraling war in China, the militarist regime had dissolved all existing labor unions and absorbed them into the Industrial Association for Serving the Nation (Sampō), as part of a national reorganization of all civil organizations under central government control.

Secretary-General of Sōhyō

After Japan's defeat in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the collapse of the militarist regime, Takano returned to labor activism under the U.S. Occupation, which legalized labor unions and explicitly protected labor organizing in the new Japanese Constitution promulgated at the Occupation's behest in 1947. In 1950 Takano played a central role in the creation of the

(better known by its Japanese abbreviation ''Sōhyō''), and in 1951, he was elected its first secretary-general. Sōhyō had been formed with the connivance of Occupation authorities, as what they hoped would be a moderate, centrist alternative to the militant, JCP-affiliated labor unions that had dominated the Japanese labor movement prior to the

Red Purge The Red Purge (Japanese: レッドパージ; ''reddo pāji'') was an anticommunist movement in occupied Japan from the late 1940s to the early 1950s.: "From 1947, the Japanese government, supported by MacArthur, unleashed a Red Purge that targeted ...

of 1948–1950. However, Takano was no moderate, and he immediately set about instilling in the new organization his vision of wide-ranging social activism extending far beyond workplace issues to encompass a broad array of left-wing social and political causes, becoming the leading figure in Sōhyō's dramatic "left turn." With the JCP in disarray following the Red Purge and a disastrous flirtation with armed revolution, Takano led Sōhyō into the embrace of the

Japan Socialist Party The was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including ...

(JSP) instead. As secretary-general, Takano played a leading role in organizing protests by Sōhyō-affiliated labor unionists against the Anti-Subversive Activities Law of 1952, and against the U.S. artillery range in the Uchinada sand dunes from 1952 to 1953, as well as against the U.S. nuclear testing in the wake of the ''Lucky Dragon'' nuclear fallout incident of 1954. He also presided over a series of increasingly militant workplace struggles and strikes, thereby instilling both political and labor militancy in Sōhyō's organizational DNA. However, in 1953, Takano crossed a bridge too far when he introduced his "Peace Force Thesis," whereby Takano sought to align Sōhyō with the "peaceful" Soviet Union and Communist China against the "warlike" United States. This stance provoked a chorus of criticism from within both Sōhyō and the JSP. The following year, three of Sōhyō's largest unions bolted to form the more moderate, openly anti-communist

Zenrō The All-Japan Trade Union Congress ( ja, 全日本労働組合会議), better known by its Japanese abbreviation Zenrō) was a national trade union federation that existed in Japan from 1954 to 1964. History Zenrō was established in 1954 by a numb ...

labor federation, precipitating the ouster of Takano. In 1955, Akira Iwai was elected Sōhyō's new secretary-general, with a mandate to pursue a more moderate policy line.

Later life

Thereafter, Takano rejoined the

, but would eventually be expelled in 1968. In 1956, he became vice chairman of the National Metal Workers' Union (Zenkin), serving until 1970. During this period, Takano made several trips to the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, building up relations between the Japanese labor movement and the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

. Takano died on September 13, 1974, of the tuberculosis he had contracted in prison in the 1930s, at the age of 73.

References

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Sources cited

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Takano, Minoru 1901 births 1974 deaths Japanese trade union leaders Japanese prisoners and detainees Waseda University alumni People from Chiyoda, Tokyo People from Tokyo Prisoners and detainees of Japan