Table Of ContentThe Birth of the
Japanese Labor Movement
TakanoFusatarō.(CourtesyofIwanamiShoten)
The Birth of the
Japanese Labor
Movement
TAKANO FUSATARŌ AND THE
RŌDŌ KUMIAI KISEIKAI
Stephen E. Marsland
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
1 The Setting 1
2 Takano Fusatarō 46
3 Birth ofthe LaborMovement 62
4 The Metalworkers’ Union 74
5 Growth ofthe LaborMovement 87
6 The Turning Point 112
7 Crisis andCollapse 126
8 Legacy ofthe Movement 148
Appendixes 159
A Constitution ofthe Alliance forIndustrial Organization 161
B Constitution ofthe Tokyo ShipCarpenters’ Union 167
C “ASummonstothe Workers” 172
D Rules ofthe RōdōKumiai Kiseikai 180
E Constitution ofthe Metalworkers’ Union 183
F Constitution ofthe Reform Society 195
G Printers’ Friendly Association Rules 201
H Proposed Factory Lawof1898 204
I Constitution ofthe Printers’ Union 211
J Reference Tables 220
Notes 225
Bibliography 249
Index 267
viii
PREFACE
This work has two purposes. The first is to chronicle the birth of
the Japanese labor movement, which until now has received only
afewscantpagesinotherworks.Thesecondistodocumentearly
unionstructures,constitutions,andideologyforthosewhowishto
comparetheearlyJapaneselabormovementtothatofothercoun-
tries. Many books that deal only briefly with this period contain
errors and inconsistencies, or omit notes to explain sources. Ac-
cess toLaborWorld, the labor newspaper ofthe period, andother
documents recently compiled by the Tokyo University Committee
on Labor Movement Documents enabled me to resolve many of
these problems. I am deeply indebted to this committee, whose
careful research made this bookpossible.
ThroughoutthebookIhavegivenJapanesefamilynamesfirst,
which seems most natural to me. I have used the Hepburn system
at the publisher’s recommendation even though I prefer the sys-
tem developed by Eleanor Harz Jorden, which I feel more closely
parallels howthe Japanese write inhiragana.
Labor World had both English and Japanese sections in each
issue. A typical issue was ten pages, nine in Japanese and one in
English. From the perspective of an English reader, the Japanese
title, Rōdō Sekai, appeared on the last page. The English title, La-
bor World, appeared on the first page. Issues were numbered in
Japanese sequentially from one to one hundred. The English title
page carried a numbering system of volumes and numbers. Thus
theissuenumbered67inJapanesewasvolumethree,numberone
inEnglish.PaginationstartedfromtheJapanesetitlepage,except
that the English title pagewas unnumbered.
ix
x Preface
To avoid confusion, I have used the English title, Labor World,
but followed the Japanese numbering system. Thus the English ti-
tle page in a ten-page issue would be page ten. Quotations are
fromtheEnglishsectionexceptwhereIhaveindicated“mytrans-
lation.”
I owe a great deal to many individuals who helped in the
creation of this work. I began work on this manuscript during
my junior year abroad at Keio University while a student at the
New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cor-
nell University. Professors at both schools, as well as scholars and
staff at the Japan Institute of Labour to which I was attached that
year, guided and assisted my studies. Professor Emeritus Alice
Cook directed my research from Cornell, while in Japan Profes-
sor Komatsu Ryūji of Keio took me under his wing and fueled my
interestintheMeiji-period labormovement.IamindebtedtoPro-
fessors John P. Windmuller, Gerd Korman, and Walter Galenson
at Cornell, who fostered my love of history, economics, and com-
parative industrial relations. In Japan Professors Sumiya Mikio,
Ōkōchi Kazuo, Iida Kanae, Ōshima Kiyoshi, and Umetani Shun’-
ichirō all took time to clarify various aspects of Japanese labor
history.
Hirota Osamu and Yamamoto Hisao at the Japan Institute of
Labour went out of their way to make me feel at home and intro-
duce me to scholars in the field. Professor Earl Kinmonth was
kind enough to evaluate and direct editing of the manuscript
whileIwasatCornell,andProfessorsSolomonLevineandRobert
Cole offered much encouragement while I was rewriting the
manuscript. My parents, Bill and Amy Marsland, did an excellent
final editing. The best support a man could ask for was given by
my wife Yaeko, who strongly encouraged me to finish rewriting
the manuscript.
Early Japanese labor history fascinates me because it rep-
resents an early convergence of Japanese and American ideas.
The founder of the Japanese labor movement traveled to the
United States and studied American unions for years. He be-
came an organizer for the American Federation of Labor and
wrote many articles for the Federationist. Labor World’s English
section reflects this close association, as does the fact that many
of the original source documents are in English. The blend of
Japanese and American labor ideologies created at that time,
