Which Side Are You On?

by Toru Shinoda


Toshikoshi Hakenmura: A Japanese "Hooverville"

In Japan, the week or so from the end of December through the first days of the New Year constitute the longest and most solemn holiday of the year.  Mainstream newspapers and TV news programs during this week are typically filled with mundane reports of the events of the season.  But the week bridging 2008 to 2009 was distinctively different.  Each day, the newspapers, TV news programs, and even websites such as Yahoo carried reports -- often as the top story with frequent updates -- of a unique camp supplying food, beds, health checks, and even spiritual support to jobless and homeless people gathered in the center of downtown Tokyo.  This news drew an unexpectedly wide range of attention and generated unprecedented reactions, and its drama symbolized the recent suffering of Japanese workers and their families, especially "the working poor."  The entire episode suggests there has been a turning of the tide in Japanese labor politics.

The name of the camp is Toshikoshi Hakenmura, roughly translatable as "New Year's Eve Village for Dispatched Workers (the full term for "dispatched worker is "Haken Rodosha").  In recent years, Japanese employment agencies have been dispatching thousands of workers on short-term or temporary contracts to manufacturing companies such as automakers.  But in late 2008, many of these contracts were suddenly canceled as manufacturers responded to the recession by reducing production (these cancellations are termed "haken-giri" or "dispatch cuts.").  During the period of their contract, these workers had typically been housed in dormitories for temporary employees.  As their contracts were cancelled, the workers were ordered to leave the dormitory.  In the current economic climate, the dispatching agency was hardly able to provide new jobs to these unemployed workers.  Many soon found themselves indigent, and some were homeless, compelled to sleep on park benches in the cold night.  Very few homeless shelters are available in Japan in any case, and because relevant public offices are closed, the holiday season is the hardest time for these homeless.  This was the context for the opening of the Toshikoshi Hakenmura.



"Hooverville" was the term coined to describe the numerous shanty towns created by homeless men during the Great Depression in various American cities, an ironic reference, of course, to president Herbert Hoover.  Nearly 80 years ago the spectacle of these Hoovervilles pushed Roosevelt and American labor politics toward the New Deal.  In this light, one is led to wonder about the political significance of the similarly ironically named "New Year Hakenmura." Does it indicate a tipping point in Japanese labor politics?

What Drove the Dispatched Workers to Hakenmura?
The 1999 Dispatched Manpower Business Act




Who Invented Hakenmura?
The Community Union



Because of the manifold functions and goals of their movement, community unions' organizing methods are also distinctive. They often focus more on building a social movement than organizing as a labor union; they "promote causes, principled ideas, and norms, and they involve individuals advocating policy change."5  For example, they recently united both a few managers and part-time workers at Japan McDonald's (the Japanese corporate entity of the global hamburger chain) to campaign over the issue of unpaid overtime work.  Effectively using the media and filing suit in court, skillfully backed by various public activities, this community union eventually forced the company to pay for overtime work, despite its very small membership.


Why Was Hakenmura So Effective?
The Media's Rush to Labor



During the 1980s, labor problems were assumed to be minor issues in Japan, which was widely perceived at home and globally as one of the most successful developed countries in the world.  This perception changed when the story of the "Lost 15 Years" (Ushinawareta 15 Nen), Japan's long economic slump extending from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s, became a dominant focus of media attention.  People deplored the lost vitality of the Japanese economy and looked back nostalgically on past economic success.  Since the mid-2000s, however, public discourse of lost economic vitality has given way to a discourse of lost equality in Japanese society.  This is the narrative of a "divided society" (kakusa shakai).  Japan had long been considered among the most egalitarian of industrialized countries.  The lost fifteen years, however, generated a widening gap between rich and poor.  One of the major reasons for this gap was the decline of the system of relatively long-term stable employment in major companies, seen as distinctive of Japanese society, which had supported a relatively equitable distribution of wealth.  The retreat from commitment to long-term employment on the part of many firms produced a greater disparity in career opportunities and choices offered to the younger generation.  The youth suffering diminished opportunities over the "Lost Fifteen Years" have been dubbed Japan's "Rosu Gene" (Lost Generation) in the media.


Ever alert to new trends, the media have recently shifted their focus from the "divided society" to the "working poor" (Waakingu Pua).  This term, referring to people who have jobs and work hard, but remain poor, was imported from the United States, where the category of the working poor encompasses low-paid workers, many from immigrant, single-parent, and minority families, many in service industries, and non-mainstream workers with diverse backgrounds in various industries.  The term has much the same meaning in Japan.  Non-regular jobs (off the secure track of "regular employee" status) in Japan have drastically increased during the last decade, as unemployment has risen significantly.7  These jobs have been held by female part-time workers (labeled "pato", numbering 7.8 million in 2005), young part-time or casual workers (labeled "arubaito," 3.4 million in 2005), contract workers, engaged directly by an employer on a short-term contract basis (numbering 2.8 million in 2005), and dispatched workers, engaged on limited-term contracts through a dispatching agency (1.1 million in 2005).  Whereas one out of five or six employees in Japan fell into one or another of these non-regular categories in 1990, by 2005 almost one out of three was so employed.

The wages of atypical workers are approximately two-thirds to three-fourths the level of regular workers' wages, even if they perform the same work.  A growing number of employers indicated their intention to replace full-time with part-time workers because of the lower cost and greater flexibility.  They were encouraged by the fact that Japan had no comprehensive law prohibiting discrimination against part-time or other non-regular workers, compared to full-time, in wages, welfare programs, or social insurance.  Furthermore, as already described, the Japanese conservative (or "neo-liberal") government accelerated deregulation during these years, helping employers to more easily and flexibly hire non-regular workers, including dispatched workers.

The year 2006 was the turning point in the journalism of the emerging "labor scandal."  In July, an "NHK Special Documentary," one of the nation's most respected programs, featured the Japanese working poor.  Sequels were aired in December 2006 and 2007.  Other broadcast stations followed with similar documentary programs about the working poor in 2007 and 2008.  Together these shows created a sensation, and the term "working poor" spread among ordinary people who felt a strong and growing interest in labor issues, especially as the problems of the working poor came to feel uncomfortably close to their own situation.  Since then, labor questions pertaining not only to the working poor but also to companies' illegal employment practices and government labor policies have often occupied the front pages of major newspapers and magazines and top news of national TV news programs.8   So-called "proletarian novels," originally published in the 1920s exposing the brutal conditions aboard cannery ships in the northern Pacific Ocean or workers' resistance to overseers, were republished and gained a large readership, especially among the youth.  It appears these young readers found strong connections in these stories to their own circumstances.  They also learned the meaning of solidarity among workers in these heroic narratives, something they had not experienced in their own lives.9  Newspaper editorials and the commentary of TV news anchors have been sympathetic to the working poor; the labor question was presented not as a matter of the responsibility of the individual worker (to find a job, for example), but as a matter of social justice.  It was in this context of growing public concern that Hakenmura became a perfect event for the attention of media seeking to put forward an agenda of labor questions needing to be resolved.

Who Supported Hakenmura?
The United Front for Dispatched Workers


In the wake of World War II, Japanese labor unions experienced remarkable growth.  By 1950 the unionization rate reached approximately 50 per cent.  However, unions were organized at the level of individual enterprises, and working conditions were determined by collective bargaining between each enterprise union and the employer.10  When a new national labor federation, Sohyo (the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan) was established in the early 1950s, it envisioned a labor movement that would reach out across the separate unionized sectors, and beyond them, to involve all unions and other workers' organizations in broad-based social and political movements.  While promoting the principle that "an injury to one is an injury to all" throughout the country, Sohyo actively supported a strong peace movement in alliance with liberal intellectuals, the women's movement, the farmers' movement, Socialists, and Communists, and it supported long and aggressive strikes by enterprise-based unions.11





Decline in Japanese Union Membership, 2000-2006
Decline in Japanese Union Membership, 2000-2006


Recently Zenroren has been very active in addressing the issue of the working poor.  The Communist Party's radical argument on the issue has attracted the young generation.  Severely criticizing enterprise unionism for its failure to help the dispatched workers, the media have given positive attention to these leftist activities.  And, behind the scenes, Rengo has been involved in the various activities of Zenkoku Yunion and its movement colleagues.  When the Hakenmura project was initiated, its organizers asked Rengo to make great efforts in the background.  In fact, Hakenmura relied on Rengo's physical resources, manpower, and political connections.  This would be the first time for Rengo's members to work officially with members of Zenroren and Zenrokyo in a campaign; since Rengo was established twenty years ago, these three federations have been fighting against each other.  When Sohyo was absorbed into Rengo, Communist-led groups within Sohyo split off from some of its constituent unions and founded Zenroren, and Zenroren originally tried to compete with Rengo.  When it proved difficult to compete effectively, Zenroren sought to penetrate Rengo or work with it.  Rengo has until now rejected Zenroren's overtures because of a strong anti-Communist allergy within Rengo.  But now Rengo seems ready to work with Zenroren and other groups from the perspective of social movement unionism, so long as it is beneficial for all workers and their families.  Hakenmura was the first test of this stance.

Why Was the Government Supportive of Hakenmura?
The Re-regulation Offensive

The united front in support of the dispatched workers was not limited to the labor and social movement.  One surprising turn of events came when the Hakenmura executive committee asked the MHLW to open its building for the workers' lodging on January 2, and the ministry promptly agreed.  This was the first time it has offered its building for workers' lodging.  Until they heard the announcement, few if any observers would have expected the MHLW to take this step.  And surely no one expected that the decision would be made so quickly, on January 2, a national holiday when ordinarily there was nobody at all working.  But the MHLW acted as if it had been standing by, ready to help.  Why was the ministry so accommodating to Hakenmura?  The reason is that the foundation for a united political front, to be sure a carefully calculated one, had been laid for the bureaucrats as well.  In fact, politicians of all the parties, from the LDP to the JCP, had visited Hakenmura to learn how they could help the workers.  Of course, their visits were aired on national news programs.  The person in charge of opening the building was a vice minister of the MHLW.  He must have discussed the decision with the minister.  One of the leaders of the Democratic Party who visited Hakenmura was a former minister of the MHLW, and he likely called the minister requesting him to help the workers.



Growing popular interest in labor questions and concern with the "divided society" have provided politicians with a new rhetoric concerning the various issues involved, leading them to seek new bases of support.  This shift certainly occurred within the LDP.  The ruling party has been much more enthusiastic than the opposition Democratic Party, which Rengo had supported, in introducing new labor policies to ameliorate the status and working and living conditions of non-regular workers.  In fact, one LDP leader with a strong neo-liberal disposition declared that the party should become the standard-bearer of part-time workers.17  He believed that the LDP could promote equality of opportunity and "second chances" for underprivileged workers much more effectively than more radical schemes to improve working and living conditions.  From the viewpoint of equality of opportunity, the LDP leader was also prone to attack the "vested interest" privileges of public employees.  Similarly the policies of the Abe government aimed at giving non-regular workers equal opportunity, not directly through promotions or pay raises, but by removing legal impediments to advances in position or pay.  By such policies, the LDP leadership expected to drive a wedge among workers, the mainstay of the opposition party, to divide Rengo, and to attract some working-class support to the LDP.  But as neo-liberalism has declined even in the LDP, this group's influence over the government's labor policy has been diminished.




A Critical Moment for Japanese Labor Politics




1  On recent Japanese labor politics, see Toru Shinoda, "Introduction: The Return of Japanese Labor?  The Mainstreaming of the Labor Question in Japanese Politics," Labor History, Vol. 49, No. 2, May 2008.

2  Yuka Hayashi, "Steep Export Slide Pummels Japan: Annualized 4th-quarter GDP Plunged 12.7%; Further Declines Predicted," Wall Street Journal, February 16, 2009.


4  Mari Miura, "The New Politics of Labor: Shifting Veto Points and Representing the Un-organized," F-93, Institute of Social Science (University of Tokyo), Domestic Politics Project No. 3, July 2001.


6  For more detail on the community unions and their background, see Akira Suzuki, "Community Unions in Japan: Similarities and Differences of Region-based Labour Movements between Japan and Other Industrialized Countries," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 492-520, November 2008.

7  "Nihon Ban Waakingu Puaa: Hataraitemo Mazushii Hitotachi" (Japanese Working Poor: People Work Hard But Are Still Poor), Weekly Toyo Keizai, 16 September 16 2006.


9  Norma Field, "Commercial Appetite and Human Need: The Accidental and Fated revival of Kobayashi Takiji's Cannery Ship," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 8-8-09, February 22, 2009.

10  Toru Shinoda, "Rengo and Policy Participation: Japanese-style Neo-corporatism?" in Mari Sako and Hiroki Sato eds. Japanese Labour and Management in Transition, p.189.

11  Toru Shinoda, "'Kigyo Betsu Kumiai wo Chushin to shita Minshu Kumiai' toha --Shakai Undo teki Rodo Kumiai to shiteno Takano Sohyo ni kansuru Bunken Kenkyu" [in Japanese] (What Is a 'Company-based Popular Union'?: Takano Sohyo as Social Movement Unionism, 1, 2), Ohara Shakai Mondai Kenkyujo Zasshi (The Journal of Ohara Institute for Social Research), No. 564, 565, November, December 2005.

12  Beverly J. Silver, Forces of Labor: Workers' Movement and Globalization since 1870, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.42.

13  Kazuo Sugeno, "Judicial Reform and the Reform of the Labor Dispute Resolution System," in Japan Labor Review, Vol. 3, No. 1, Winter 2006, p.7.


15  Frege, Heery, and Turner argue that trade union movements often try to "recreate themselves as social movements" when they seek to revitalize.  Their "prescription of 'social movement unionism' lists the following: 1) Broadening movement goals to "encompass social progress beyond the immediate employment relationship"; 2) Forming "coalitions with other social progressive forces," including new social movements on "social identity, the environment, and globalization"; and 3) Rediscovering unions' "capacity to mobilize workers in campaigns for workplace and wider social justice."  Carola Frege, Edmund Heery, and Lowell Turner, "The New Solidarity? Trade Union Coalition-Building in Five Countries," in Carola Frege and John Kelly eds. Varieties of Unionism: Strategies for Union Revitalization in a Globalizing Economy, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.137.



18  "'Keieisha no Ronri' ni Igi wo Tonaeru Jimin Rodo Seisaku no Nejire Gensho (The Twisted LDP Labor Policy against 'the Logic of Management'), Weekly Ekonomisuto, January 20, 2007, pp.25-26.


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