This paper aims to show how “peripheral” workers are linked with labor unions through examining a case study of the A branch, General Union (GU). With increasing the number of “peripheral” workers included foreign workers, Individual Affiliate Unions (IAUs) which are open to any category or nationality rise in Japan. Nowadays, these kinds of union are needed in order to improve their labor condition and surroundings. Yet, many unions are suffering badly from organizing their members because their membership is very fluid. Many previous studies have shown the negative situation of the unions from the field level, but they haven't figured out the solution yet. However, studies of Social Movement Unionism (SMU), which tries to deal with IAUs as social movements and focus on the grassroots recruitment, are piled up. Therefore this paper examines the mobilizing strategy using the worker's individual networks, which are formed in their workplace in recruiting new members from the perspective of the social movement theory, especially mobilizing structure theory. The finding shows that after the establishment of organizing the A branch a mobilizing strategy through individual networks which the union members have enables the A branch to keep stable membership. The A branch puts great effort into their strategic recruitment by involving rank and file members many kinds of recruitment-oriented activities such as leafleting. This paper concludes that recruitment through individual networks which the union members have is very important for IAUs, like GU because their organizational base is mostly weak. This study is characterized by focusing on the “mobilizing structure” of the union from the perspective of the social movement theory. This view will bring some new perspective on considering how “peripheral” workers are linked with labor unions.

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This paper focuses on the world of labor of architects. Architects are professional specialists and engage in creative works. The research question of the paper is what drives architects to work excessively. The paper proposes two hypotheses for this research question. First, previous studies on professionals point out their orientation to “altruistic service,” and it is hypothesized that this concept also applies to the case of architects. Their orientation to the altruistic service is due to the very special nature of products they design, houses in which customers invest their life savings. Second, it is hypothesized that the requirement of creativity embedded into the work process of architects lead to their excessive labor. In other words, their intrinsically rewarding work process tends to make them work excessive hours.

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Recent labor-management relations in Japan have been marked by the establishment of a labor-management relationship dominated by management and declining influence of the labor unions. However, in the case of the Hiroshima Dentetsu Branch of the Chugoku Region Private Railway Workers' Union of Japan (hereafter the Hiroshima Dentetsu Labor Union) , its workplace union organization actively engages in negotiations on working conditions with the company' s low-level management. An examination of workplace negotiations in which the Hiroshima Dentetsu Labor Union participated revealed the following. First, vitalization of union activities in the workplace as reflected in workplace negotiations is a major factor in invigorating labor union activities at the company level. Second, the workplace union organization of the Hiroshima Dentetsu Labor Union not only engages in workplace negotiations autonomously, but also operates to attain benefits in terms of (1) relatively direct effects, for ordinary union members, that involve working conditions and (2) stable management of the workplace through workplace negotiations, an indirect effect for low-level management. Third, it is possible to strengthen both workplace morale and the labor union' s ability to influence rules due to three factors: (1) the workplace union organization of the Hiroshima Dentetsu Labor Union makes requests that comprehensively take into account rider services, working conditions, and revenue and expenditure; (2) efforts are made to prevent a decline in workplace morale under guidance from the Hiroshima Dentetsu Labor Union; and (3) a balance of interests is maintained among the ordinary union members, the directors of the workplace union organization, and low-level management owing to efforts by the latter two parties. These findings indicate that strengthened bargaining power of a labor union organization in the workplace makes it possible to invigorate the labor union at company level.

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The working environment of doctors is extremely demanding, with night shifts, holiday work, and emergency calls, in addition to their usual long working hours. Further, the doctor community is a strict hierarchical one, with young doctors ordered to work weekends many times a month and assigned New Year holiday work and Christmas duty for years in succession, so they are deprived of time with family and partners, and are not even guaranteed being able to live like normal human beings. Cases of doctors disliking this current situation and resigning from hospitals are increasing and the doctor shortage is accelerating. This makes the environment of the medical front with its chronic doctor shortage even harsher, and patients also bear the brunt, with medical care refused, medical errors made, and so on. Clearly in such a working environment young doctors strongly desire “an environment in which taking leave is easy”, which enables relief of physical exhaustion and insufficient sleep. Needless to say, taking annual paid leave -“leave” which allows reduction of accumulated fatigue and timely mental and physical rest - is necessary to doctors. However, the proportion of doctors who do not take a single day of leave in a year is almost twice as high as that of average workers. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to clearly identify the factors leading to young doctors, especially those in a severe environment, not to take annual paid leave, focusing on the working environment which makes taking leave difficult, cased on a hearing survey. As a result, aside from items which could be identified in other conventional studies on annual paid leave targeting average workers, items which are peculiar to the medical community controlled by the medical office, could be identified as factors affecting young doctors not taking leave.

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