The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry, 1853–1955

Harvard East Asian Monographs #117

by Andrew Gordon

The century-long process by which a distinct pattern of Japanese labor relations evolved is traced through the often turbulent interactions of workers, managers, and, at times, government bureaucrats and politicians. The author argues that, although by the 1920s labor relations had reached a stage that foreshadowed postwar development, it was not until the 1940s and 1950s that something closely akin to the contemporary pattern emerged.

The central theme is that the ideas and actions of the workers, whether unionized or not, played a vital role in the shaping of the system. This is the only study in the West that demonstrates how Japanese workers sought to change and to some extent succeeded in changing the structure of factory life. Managerial innovations and the efforts of state bureaucrats to control social change are also examined.

The book is based on extensive archival research and interviewing in Japan, including the use of numerous labor-union publications and the holdings of the prewar elite’s principal organization for the study of social issues, the Kyochokai (“Association for Harmonious Cooperation”)―both collections having only recently been catalogued and opened to scholars. This is an intensive look at past developments that underlie labor relations in today’s Japanese industrial plants.

524 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 1985

About the author

A specialist in the history of modern Japan, Andrew Gordon is the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1981 in History and East Asian Languages after completing a B.A. from Harvard in 1975.

Reviews

[Kevin Dufresne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hi,

I hope all is progressing well.

The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry 1853--1955 by Andrew Gordon concerns the prewar, interwar, and postwar developments of cultural and employment systems within particular companies of the Heavy Industry in Japan between the middle of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century (a bit beyond the middle of the 20th century). The text delves into developments of relations between different types of workers nationally, and globally (part-time, full-time, temporary, managers, etc.) concerning wages, seniority, paternalism, unions, and skills. As much as the text focuses on developments of culture and labor relations in accordance with Japan -- Tokugawa society, the Meiji order -- there are stark connections, within these developments, to processes in accordance with government, industrialization, and nationalism branching from and within other nations. I am very glad about reading The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry 1853--1955. I find the text to be very insightful and relevant to understanding modern day labor relations.

Onward and Upward,
Kevin Dufresne