Creating an Industrial Relations System in which Labor Unions can Counter “Black Corporations”

Abstract

The weakening of the Japanese employment system has created new categories of workers, such as the “peripheral regular workers” who work for the abusive employers commonly referred to as “black corporations”. These workers’ poor working conditions, low wages, and economic insecurity have drawn public criticism, but conventional enterprise unions have failed to organize them.During the 2010s, however, there has been movement towards forming new types of individual affiliate unions, which, unlike enterprise unions and earlier individual affiliate unions, aim to organize workers in burgeoning industries by industry and trade rather than by individual companies.This presentation examines the structures and functions of labor unions seeking to assist the growing number of “peripheral regular workers”. It also describes how and why these unions were established.