THE GOVERNMENT OF MODERN JAPAN: INTEREST GROUPS IN JAPANESE POLITICS Most Powerful Interest Groups: Labor |
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Gerald L. Curtis :: The third major group, major interest group in Japan, is that of Japanese labor. Now in the post-war period up until the mid-1980s, the most important labor federation in Japan was an organization called Sohyo, and Sohyo was a labor federation that was affiliated with the left-wing of the Japan Socialist Party. In the 1960s some labor unions broke away from Sohyo and formed a more moderate federation called Domei. Sohyo ended up representing mostly workers in public-sector unions, teachers, local government employees, workers in the national railways, workers in the postal union, whilst Domei, the more moderate labor federation, represented workers in the private sector, especially in the automobile sector and in telecommunications. By the 1980s Sohyo had lost much of its earlier influence and, along with the Socialist Party, the power of the left-wing in the labor movement declined precipitously, and by the end of the 1980s Sohyo and Domei both dissolved and a new moderate labor federation was created. This is called Rengo, and the Rengo is one of the largest labor federations in the world today, but its power is quite limited since it rejects the kind of political action that Sokyo was so famous for in earlier years. |
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