Yūaikai

The Yūaikai (友愛会) or the "Friendly Society" was a pre-war Japanese trade union. It was the only large trade union that existed in Japan during the early 1910s.

History

The Yūaikai was established in 1912 by Suzuki Bunji.^[1] It drew together industrial workers from Osaka and Tokyo during Japan's economic boom during World War I, and flourished from 1912 to 1918.^[2] It was the only large trade union to exist in Japan during this time period.^[1] The Yūaikai also had a women's organization affiliated with them, the first of its kind. However, the organization only persuaded a few thousand women to join unions, compared to the 500,000 membership of the main group.^[2]

The Yūaikai was renamed the Nihon Rōdō Sōdōmei (日本労働総同盟) [ja] in 1921. The Sōdōmei had a more radical political agenda, and was generally seen as more militant than the original group. It was dissolved in 1940, when the Japanese government outlawed labor unions.^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b Large, Stephen S. (May 1970). "The Japanese Labor Movement, 1912–1919: Suzuki Bunji and the Yūaikai". The Journal of Asian Studies. 29 (3): 559–579. doi:10.2307/2943244. ISSN 1752-0401.
^ ^a ^b ^c Gerteis, Christopher. "Political protest in interwar Japan". visualizingcultures.mit.edu. Retrieved 2023-09-05.