Abstract
The policy on industrial relations in Japan during the inter-war period can be characterized by the interest to the "harmonization" between manegement and labor.
It is said that this harmonizaton policy provided only the limited recognition of trade unionism, which was especially embodied by the enactment of the Labor Disputes Conciliation Law (1926). But whereas both "paternalism" in the late Meiji era and the policy aiming "unification of the employer and the employees" during the second world war implied the hostility to trade unionism, the harmonization policy, which recognized the equal position of the employer and the employees, was remarkable in its progressive approach and partly reflected the liberalism of "Taisyo Democracy".
This article describes the histrical background of the harmonization policy and considers its significance as legal thought.
