Organized Workers and Socialist Politics in Interwar Japan

A 1981 political history of organised labour in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s.

Stephen S. Large (Author)

9780521136310, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 February 2010

336 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.5 kg

First published in 1981, this book, a political history of organised labour in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s, broke ground in research on the Japanese socialist movement by examining the movement from the perspective of the unions, which then provided the socialist parties with much of their popular support. Focusing on the Japan General Federation of Labour, an important pacesetter for labour politics, the author analyses why a significant cross-section of organised workers began the 1920s with promising vitality and high hopes of contributing to a progressive, socialist reconstruction of Japan, only to abandon this political commitment in the 1930s, with adverse consequences both for the unions and for their political party allies. Throughout, the author assesses Japanese and Western interpretations of Japanese society and politics in seeking a balanced understanding of the dynamics and significance of popular social protest in the critical interwar decades.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Labour's image of the past in 1919–1920
2. Anarchism, socialism and communism in the labour movement, 1920–1923
3. The communist offensive and the 1925 labour split
4. Industrial paternalism and S?d?mei-Hy?gikai rivalry in the factories
5. Labour and the socialist party movement, 1925–1928
6. Labour's retreat from socialist politics, 1929–1932
7. Labour becalmed, 1932–1936
8. Toward dissolution, 1936–1940
Conclusion
Appendix
Figures
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]