, abbreviated , is Japan's oldest

labor union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

of teachers and school staff. Established in 1947, it was the largest teachers union until a split in the late 1980s. The union is known for its critical stance against the ruling conservative

Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

(LDP) on such issues as ''

Kimigayo is the national anthem of Japan. The lyrics are from a ' poem written by an unnamed author in the Heian period (794–1185), and the current melody was chosen in 1880, replacing an unpopular melody composed by John William Fenton in 1869. W ...

'' (the national anthem), the

Flag of Japan The national flag of Japan is a rectangular white banner with a red circle at its center. The flag is officially called the but is more commonly known in Japan as the . It embodies the country's sobriquet: the Land of the Rising Sun. The ...

, and the screening of

history textbooks Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term "historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific to ...

during the LDP's near continuous one-party rule since 1955. Today Nikkyōso is affiliated to the trade union confederation

Rengo Rengo is a city and commune located in the Zona Central of Chile, situated in the Cachapoal Province of the O'Higgins Region at a distance of south of the city of Rancagua and south of the national capital Santiago. It was named after the c ...

. It had 290,857 members as of December 2009.Rengo websit
Rengo brochure 2010-2011
Retrieved on July 6, 2012

History

Nikkyōso was founded in June 1947, with assistance from the Japan Communist Party (JCP), as a national federation of local prefectural teachers unions, although in practice each of these unions had considerable autonomy and its own strengths and political orientation. At the time of its founding, Nikkyōso represented almost every single school teacher, university professor, and school staff member in Japan. Initially under the influence of the JCP, in 1950 Nikkyōso joined the nationwide

Sōhyō The , often abbreviated to , was a left-leaning union confederation. Founded in 1950, it was the largest labor federation in Japan for several decades. Origins In the immediate aftermath of Japan's defeat in World War II, the United States-led Oc ...

labor confederation and thereafter became more closely affiliated with the

Japan Socialist Party The was a major socialist and progressive political party in Japan which existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was the primary representative of the Japanese left and main opponent of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party for most of its ex ...

(JSP). From the earliest days of its foundation, Nikkyōso took an extremely militant line against a series of conservative governments in Japan, leading to considerable antagonism between the union and the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

. Major points of contention included government requirements that teachers sing the national anthem and salute the Japanese flag in class, training requirements for new teachers, government efforts to recentralize education, efforts to protect school autonomy, government curriculum mandates, and textbook censorship. From the perspective of the conservative government and right-wing groups in Japan, Nikkyōso was viewed as akin to public enemy number one, as it was seen to be indoctrinating Japan's youth and college students into left-wing, pro-union, and even communistic modes of thought. The decade of the 1950s saw successive conservative governments attempt to break the power of Nikkyōso by introducing a "teacher efficiency ratings system," which the government could then use as an excuse to fire the most militant teachers, and which Nikkyōso fought tooth and nail to prevent. In his book ''

The Enigma of Japanese Power ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

'',

Karel van Wolferen Karel van Wolferen (born 1941) is a Dutch journalist, writer and professor, who is particularly recognised for his knowledge of Japanese politics, economics, history and culture. Career as journalist, writer and academic After finishing hig ...

describes the clashes between conservative forces and Nikkyōso during this period, including Ministers of Education who had previously served in the "Thought Police" of the 1930s using thugs to systematically attack union members, break up union meetings, and eliminate local elected boards of education. In 1961, police even uncovered a plot by right-wing groups to assassinate the leaders of Nikkyōso. In the latter half of the 1950s, however, Prime Minister

Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. He is remembered for his exploitative economic management of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in China in the 1930s, ...

made smashing Nikkyōso one of his personal missions. In 1958, Kishi finally succeeded in installing the long-delayed teacher efficiency ratings system, allowing the Ministry of Education to fire teachers almost at will. In the aftermath of this epoch-making defeat, Nikkyōso went into decline and began gradually losing members. In the late 1980s, long-running internal disagreements within Nikkyōso on political orientation and on Nikkyōso's relationships to other national labor organizations finally produced major internal schisms. The union thus became less effective than in previous years at a time when the national government and the Ministry of Education were moving aggressively ahead with a major educational reform. Nikkyōso had staunchly opposed many of the proposed reforms by the Ministry, but it failed to forestall changes in certification and teacher training that it had viewed as an existential threat to its own survival. The new Nikkyōso leadership that emerged after several years of internal discord seemed to take a more conciliatory approach to the Ministry and reform issues, but Nikkyōso membership continued to decline thereafter.

Presidents

:1947: Araki Shozaburo :1950: Oka Saburo :1952: Takeshi Kobayashi :1962: Miyanohara Sadamitsu :1971: Motofumi Makieda :1983: Shoju Ohba :1990s: :2004: Yasuo Morikoshi :2008: Yuzuru Nakamura :2012: Ryosuke Kato

References

Citations

Works cited

* * *
Japan

External links

Japan Teachers Union Homepage (in Japanese)National Union of General Workers (in English)

University Teachers Union (in English)
{{Authority control Trade unions in Japan Education in Japan Education trade unions Trade unions established in 1947 Teaching in Japan