The State and Labor in Modern Japan / Edition 1

by Sheldon Garon

Overview

In this meticulously researched study, Sheldon Garon examines the evolution of Japan's governmental policies toward labor from the late nineteenth century to the present day, and he substantially revises prevailing views which depict relations between the Japanese state and labor simply in terms of suppression and mutual antagonism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520068384
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/05/1990
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Sheldon Garon is Associate Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Princeton University.

Table of Contents

	List of Tables	xi
	Note on Japanese Names	xiii
	Acknowledgments	xv
	Introduction	1
1.	The Origins of Japanese Social Policy, 1868-1918	10
	The Workers
	State and Business: Factory Legislation as Industrial Policy
	The "Social Question" and Social Policy
	Policies toward Organized Labor
	Parties and Social Policy
2.	A Crisis in Relations between Labor and Capital, 1918-22	39
	The Labor Question
	Capitalists Propose Reforms
	The Seiyukai Government and the Modernization of "Harmony"
	The Kenseikai and the Social Foundations of Interwar Reform
	The Liberal Vision
	Labor Estranged, 1920-22
3.	The Social Bureaucrats and the Integration of Labor, 1918-27	73
	From Economic to Social Bureaucrats
	Toward a New Labor Policy
	Reshaping the Labor Movement
	The Impact on Labor and Management, 1924-28
4.	The Politics of Social Policy, 1924-29	120
	"A Universal Suffrage for Industry": The Labor Union Bills of 1926 and 1927
	Reinterpreting the Peace Preservation Law
	Minseito and Seiyukai: Divergent Responses to Universal Manhood Suffrage
	The Bureaucrats Enter Politics
	Social Policy or Antisocialism?: The Parliamentary Debate, 1928-29
5.	The Limits of Liberal Reform, 1929-31	157
	Dynamic Beginnings
	The Employers' Offensive
	The "Social Bureau Draft"
	Parliamentary Debacle
	The Death of Liberal Social Policy
6.	The Statist Solution, 1931-45	187
	Labor's Turn to the State
	Search for a New Labor Policy, 1931-36
	Unions Bypassed: The Industrial Patriotic Movement, 1936-40
	The Failure of State Corporatism, 1940-45
	Epilogue: Legacies for Postwar Japan	229
	Persistence of the Social Bureaucrats
	The Occupation Reforms
	The "Reverse Course" and Japanese History
	Toward Corporatism with Labor?
Appendix 1	Industrial Strikes, 1897-1941	249
Appendix 2	Cabinets and Ministers Related to Labor Policy, 1908-32	250
Appendix 3	Strike-related Arrests under Article 17 of the Police Regulations and Other Charges, 1914-26	252
Appendix 4	Occupational Background of the Nonproletarian Parties, Lower House Representatives, 1920-30	253
Appendix 5	An Outline of Labor Union Bills	254
Appendix 6	Labor Unions and Union Membership, 1918-41	256
	Abbreviations Used in the Notes	257
	Notes	259
	Bibliography	295
	Index	317

Editorial Reviews

Garon (history, Princeton) examines the development of labor policy in Japan from the beginning of industrialization in the late 19th century to the present. In Garon's view, Western observers too often assume that the cooperative relationship of management and labor in contemporary Japan flows ``from the country's traditonal social relations'' and has little similarity to industrial relations in the West. Garon depicts the evolution of labor policy in a historical perspective, delineating its ebbs and flows. What emerges is a far more complex picture of the interaction of politicians and political parties, labor leaders, career bureaucrats, and foreign influences. A well-re searched and organized discussion, particularly for specialists. Scott Wright, Coll. of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn.

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