A Brief Review of the Labour Movement in Japan/Part 3/Chapter 1

by Sanzō Nosaka

CHAPTER I.

Statistics ^[1]

1. The „Organisable“ Workers.

In order to understand the extent of the Japanese Trade Union Movement, it is necessary to bear in mind: (1) that agriculture and semi-agriculture occupy nearly 60 per cent. of the population (56.6 millions), (2) that the handicraft and small-scale industries greatly dominate, and (3) that there is an extraordinary number of woman labourers, chiefly employed in the textile industry (650,000 in factories and 700,009 small and home works) and other small-scale productions. (See the Appendix).

According to the latest official report (1918), we obtain the following figures in connection with a rough estimate of the so-called „organisable“ workers, with complete exclusion of wage-earners engaging in distributive, domestic, clerical, and other similar services, out-door (including building), and agriculture labourers.

1)	Factory workers	(factories employing over ten);
		1,680,000 (855,000 men & 825,000 women),
2)	Transport workers	(railwaymen, seamen, dockers, & post-men),
		590,000 (560,000 men & 30,000 women),
3)	Miners:	465,000 (860,000 men & 105,000 women),
Total		2,735,000 (1,775,000 men & 960,000 women).

The total figure shows that there are nearly three millions of the industrial workers. But, as the Trade Union movement among the woman workers is at present extremely of insignificance, it is better to omit this section from our estimate for a moment. Thus, we arrive at the conclusion—only hypothetical—that about two millions of the manual male workers constitute the fundamental „organisable“ basis of the Trade Union.

 

2. Trade Unions.

Under such a transitional phase and a frickle state, nobody can tell exactly, how many independent Unions exist in Japan and what membership they enlist. But if I do not make a mistake, from the statistics recently published in connection with all labour organisations which existed at the end of 1919, I hypothetically estimate that the total number of Trade Unions in the modern sense certainly exceeded 100 Unions and 80,000 members, and probably did not reach 150 Unions and 100,000 members. As the aggregate number of male „organisable“ workers was about two millions, the membership of Unions numbered between 4,5 and 5 per cent. of all. This estimation may be moderately applied to the present condition.

Of those Unions, however, only one third belong to, the proletarian fighting bodies.

 

Industries.	Workers.	Organisations.	Members.	Per cent.
Textile	713,620	90	61,643	8.6
Metal	222,366	82	40,125	18.0
Scientific	141,769	67	9,047	6.4
Mining	433,843	94	52,135	12,0
Total	1,511,598	333	162,950	10.8
Labourers Carriers & other Out-door Workers, etc.		8338	269,532

This table shows the labour and semi-labour organisations of all kinds at the end of 1919. This figures of workers quoted here differ from those added in the Appendix. But this is not my fault.

 

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1. I refer to native Japan only and do not concern with Formosa, Korea, and other exploited lands. The Japanese official statistics: are not always reliable. The first census was held in Oct. 1920.