Working class movement in Japan

[Karl Marx's Camel]

Does it exist?

And if so, to what extent?

日本共産党, the Japanese Communist Party, is it not more of a social democratic, reformist party?

[Clarksist]

The Japanese culture is by-and-large a capitalist nation. However, there is a strong collective viewpoint. Thereby, regardless of the workers movement, there is a possibility of idealist socialism.

That, my friend, is a good start.

[La Comédie Noire]

I dont know about a communist party but The Japanease are in favor of a planned economy.

[which doctor]

I know they had a radical student movement in the sixties when they broke away from the Stalinist communist party in Japan.

I'm not sure what exactly is going on over there know.

[Demogorgon]

Something people should remember about Japan is that the names of their political movements translated into English are often misleading. The Communist party are Social Democrats whereas the Social Democrats are actually much closer to being Communists. It can be quite confusing.

There is a strong left wing movement in Japan, but let's be very clear. The CIA have spent more than half a century undermining it at every turn. This was revealed beyond doubt by the New York Times of all papers in 1995.

Interesting fact, local government in Japan is dominated by leftists. This is because there is little to no foreign interference in local elections in Japan. Different story nationally.

[Janus]

The worker's movement on a whole was dealt a severe blow during WWII and the militaristic regime that was in control. However, I believe that it has been recovering since then. The current problem now, is that much of the manual labor is done by foreigners who are faced with racial discrimination as well. So far, I don't think there has been much of an attempt to organize them.


the Japanese Communist Party, is it not more of a social democratic, reformist party?
Yes.


However, there is a strong collective viewpoint
Which has been corroded by capitalism.

[Cryotank Screams]

Anarchy in Nippon (http://www.ne.jp/asahi/anarchy/anarchy/english/)

I think you meant currently, so here is the link.

[Jonte--]

I am really intrested in learning more about japanese left-wing parties.

I heard that the SDP have a fraction that have supported DPRK during recent years, is this true?

Since the only good source of info in english is the English section of Akahata (http://www.japan-press.co.jp/), I wonder if you have any more good sites that's is in english.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 24, 2007 09:50 am
日本共産党, the Japanese Communist Party, is it not more of a social democratic, reformist party?
As in most countries, yes.

A few years back, I heard a talk about the Japanese union movement by someone who'd visited recently.

Unions are organized employer-by-employer and then federated together by industry and nationally. There are several competing federations, differening in their political approach - a bit like France or Italy.

Rengo is the most openly class-collaborationist, Zenroren is associated with the Japanese CP, and Zenrokyo, mostly led by people from the left wing of the former Japan Socialist Party. The company-by-company organization encourages boss-union collaboration, and Rengo may be even more openly pro-company than unions in the U.S.

The unions in the auto industry aren't in any of the federations, and more like company unions.

Most union contracts come up around the same time every year, producing the "Spring Labor Offensive". Negotiations, strikes and demonstrations are concentrated between March and May.

Besides such familiar issues as wage rates, a big subject of negotiations is total days to be worked during the year - a limit on overtime, basically, but giving the employers a lot of flexibility on when to use it.

Average wages, relative to cost of living, are lower in Japan than in most industrialized countries. (Though labor cost to employers is a little higher than in the U.S.)