The , commonly known in Japanese as , is a national confederation of Japanese labor unions. There was another from 1947-1950.

Founding and history

In the late 1980s there were many changes in the trade union movement in Japan. The two major bodies of trade unions, the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan (Sōhyō) and the Japanese Confederation of Labor (Dōmei), formed the National Confederation of Trade Unions (

Rengo The , commonly known as , is the largest national trade union center in Japan, with over six million members as of 2011.Rengo websitRengo brochure 2010-2011 Retrieved on July 6, 2012 It was founded in 1989 as a result of the merger of the Japan ...

) in 1989, advocating the importance of the Japanese Labor Union movement being unified. On the other hand, a number of other labor unions which felt Rengo was too conservative, formed the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), which had a close relationship with the

Japanese Communist Party The is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left List of political parties in Japan, political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing Communis ...

. There were some other labor unions which did not wish to join either Rengo or Zenroren, who formed the National Trade Union Council on December 9, 1989 with its slogan of being a "Real fighting labor union movement". This organization was born out of the Labor Research Center, which had been created by former Sōhyō chairmen Kaoru Ota and Makoto Ichikawa and former secretary general Akira Iwai. Unlike organizations such as Sōhyō or Zenroren, Zenrokyo regards itself as a council of its affiliated labor unions, rather than a national center of labor unions. Despite this, given that it has national coverage with its affiliated member organizations being widely spread throughout the nation, it is often regarded as one of the national centers of labor unions in Japan.

Currently

Zenrokyo holds a regular annual conference. Its most recent, the 23rd annual conference, was held in September 2011. Estimates of Zenrokyo's membership vary. Zenrokyo itself declares its membership to be some 300,000, while according to the investigation by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare its numbers were reported as 118,000 as of December, 2010. In terms of its membership, Zenrokyo is much smaller than Rengo and Zenroren. However, it is also the only one of the major trade union federations to actively organize foreign workers in Japan. Its membership rose to 128,000 as of the end of June 2011. Politically, Zenrokyo has had a close relation with the left group of 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 Fo ...

, and it supports both the Social Democratic Party and the New Socialist Party. However, Zenrokyo does not force its members to raise funds as an organization or to support the political parties mentioned above, and it regrets that this was done in the Sōhyō period.

Zenrokyo's priorities

* Safeguarding the Peace Constitution * Opposition to war * Opposition to US Military Facilities in Japan * Support for the

Peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...

* Opposition to dismissals and restructuring, as shown in Zenrokyo's support for the

JNR dismissal lawsuit The JNR dismissal lawsuit is a lawsuit that resulted from the privatization of Japanese National Railways (JNR) in 1987, and its breakup into the seven Japan Railways Group companies. In March 1990, 1,047 mostly union workers were laid off, 966 of ...

. In addition to this, Zenrokyo cooperates with Zenroren and Rengo on some issues.

Affiliated unions

There are also other labor unions. Local organizations in 10 prefectures and 1 region of Japan.Zenrokyo websit
加盟組合
Retrieved on May 16, 2012

References

External links