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 A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. In some regions, such a ...

that existed in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

from 1954 to 1964.

History

Zenrō was established in 1954 by a number of unions on the right-wing of the trade union movement, who had become unhappy with the increasingly left-wing political stance 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) under the leadership of its militant secretary-general Minoru Takano. Politically speaking, Zenrō was tied closely to the Right Socialist Party (RSP), to whom it provided electoral support, and following the reunification 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) in 1955, supported the former RSP factions in the new party, especially the far-right faction led by

Suehiro Nishio was a Japanese labor activist and party politician whose career extended across the prewar and postwar periods. A long-serving member of the National Diet (15 terms in total), he was a power broker in the Japan Socialist Party and one of the m ...

. Although Zenrō generally shied away from political actions and even purely economic strikes, preferring a more conciliatory relationship with management, the federation did participate in the successful struggle in 1958 to defeat the revision of the Police Duties Bill proposed by conservative prime minister

Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. Known for his exploitative rule of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China in the 1930s, Kishi was nicknamed the "Monster of the Shō ...

, which opponents were able to portray as less of a left-right issue and more of a basic threat to Japanese democracy and civil rights. However, Zenrō was less enthusiastic about supporting the 1960 Anpo protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty, and ultimately pulled out of the movement when the JSP insisted that 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 ...

be allowed to participate. This controversial decision also caused Nishio and the other right socialists to bolt the JSP and form the new Democratic Socialist Party, which Zenrō thereafter supported. Not that the left socialists and Sōhyō were necessarily sorry to see Zenrō and Nishio gone, as Zenrō had purchased Sōhyō's enmity by repeatedly attempting to hive off Zenrō-affiliated "second unions" within Sōhyō-controlled shop floors. In 1964, Zenrō merged with the

National Council of Government and Public Workers' Unions The National Council of Government and Public Workers' Unions ( ja, 全国官庁労働組合協議会, Zenkankō) was a national trade union federation representing public sector workers in Japan. The federation was founded on 26 November 1946, a ...

(Zenkankō) and the

Japanese Federation of Labour The Japanese Federation of Labour ( ja, 日本労働組合総同盟 ''Nippon Rōdō Kumiai Sōdōmei'') was a national trade union federation in Japan. The federation was established in 1946, principally through the efforts of trade unionists who ...

(Sōdōmei), to form the

Japanese Confederation of Labour The Japanese Confederation of Labour (Domei; ja, 全日本労働総同盟) was a national trade union federation in Japan. The federation was founded in 1964, with the merger of the All-Japan Trade Union Congress, the National Council of Governme ...

, better known as Dōmei.

Affiliates

The following unions were affiliated in 1956.

Leadership

:President:

Minoru Takita Minoru Takita ( ja, 滝田実, 15 December 1912 – 9 December 2000) was a Japanese trade union leader. Born in the Toyama Prefecture, Takita qualified as an electrical engineer at Takaoka Technical College, then worked at Nisshin Bõseki. ...

:General Secretary:

Haruo Wada Haruo Wada ( ja, 和田春生; 15 March 1919 – 17 October 1999) was a Japanese trade unionist and politician. Wada joined the Japanese Merchant Navy in 1939. He was a founding member of the All-Japan Seamen's Union in 1945. Starting in 1948 ...

References

Citations

Works cited

*{{cite book , last = Kapur , first = Nick , year = 2018 , title = Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo , publisher = Harvard University Press , location = Cambridge, MA , isbn = 978-0674984424 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Re5hDwAAQBAJ National trade union centers of Japan Trade unions established in 1954 Trade unions disestablished in 1964