was a Japanese politician and labor activist. He founded the , an organization for laborers.

Early life and education

Suzuki was born the oldest child of Suzuki Masuji on September 4, 1885 in what is now

Kurihara, Miyagi Kurihara City Hall is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 66,565, and a population density of 83 persons per km2 in 24,994 households. The total area of the city is . Parts of the city are with ...

prefecture. When he was 10 years old he and his father converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. His family began to struggle financially when Suzuki was in middle school, and by the time he reached high school he had to pay his own way through school. These circumstances and the influences of , a missionary, made him interested in social problems. He entered

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

and with his upperclassman

Sakuzō Yoshino was a Japanese academic, historian, author and professor of political science. Yoshino was active as a political thinker in the Taishō period. He is best known for his formulation of the theory of "Minponshugi," or politics of the people. Y ...

, he began attending the Hongo Congregational Church ministered by Ebina Danjo. Influenced by the church's democratic atmosphere and sympathizing with 's

reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can eve ...

ideas, Suzuki decided to become a social activist.

Career

After graduating from the university in 1909, Suzuki began working at what is now

Dai Nippon printing , established in 1876, is a Japanese printing company. Dai Nippon operates its printing in three areas: information communications, lifestyle and industrial supplies, and electronics. The company is involved in a wide variety of printing processe ...

. He got a job at the Tokyo

Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...

in 1910. He covered poverty. In 1911 he became the secretary of a Unitarian group that was headed by

Abe Isoo was a Japanese Christian socialist, parliamentarian and pacifist. He largely contributed to development of baseball in Japan, and was called "Father of Japanese baseball." He created a baseball club of Waseda University. Early life and educ ...

. He also worked with a labor group. In 1912 he formed the Yūaikai with 14 other people, so that they could raise the status of laborers. Suzuki served as the chairman. Branches of the organization opened all over Japan, with a total of 51 by the end of 1915. In 1915 and 1916 Suzuki traveled to the United States to learn about

labor unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

there. While learning about

labor rights Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influen ...

and

strike action Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...

s, he was inspired to push for all of the labor organizations to merge in order to obtain more bargaining power. In 1919, the Yūaikai renamed itself to the Nippon Rōdō Sōdōmei Yūaikai. By 1921, the organization became simply the Nippon Rōdō Sōdōmei, or the Japanese Federation of Labor. That year the group was able to convince 30,000 dock workers in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

to go on strike. In 1926 he helped to form the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

. During the

1928 Japanese general election General elections were held in Japan on 20 February 1928,Thomas T Mackie & Richard Rose (1991) ''The International Almanac of Electoral History'', Macmillan, p281 the first after the introduction of universal male suffrage. The ruling Rikken Sei ...

, he was elected to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

representing Osaka's 4th district. He was one of the eight people who were the first to be elected to the

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

without a political party affiliation. After losing his seat in 1930, he was reelected in 1936 as a member of the

Shakai Taishūtō The was a moderate leftist political party in early Shōwa period Empire of Japan. The ''Shakai Taishūtō'' was founded by Abe Isoo in July 1932, as a merger of the '' Shakai Minshūtō'' (Socialist Mass Party) with the '' Zenkoku Rōnō Tais ...

. In 1940, Saitō Takao was expelled from the Diet for making a speech questioning the "Holy War" in China. Suzuki supported him by leaving office along with several other Diet members. On March 12, 1946, Suzuki died in

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...

, Miyagi prefecture.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suzuki, Bunji 1885 births 1946 deaths People from Miyagi Prefecture University of Tokyo alumni Members of the House of Representatives (Empire of Japan) Japanese trade union leaders