Photo/Illutration Members of unions under the umbrella of Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation) join in a collective cheer at a rally held April 27 in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park. (Takaya Katada)

Despite wage hikes this spring not seen in decades, Japan’s labor movement is in the doldrums.

Union membership is at an all-time low and many younger workers are not even aware if they belong to the union at work.

That has led unions to try various approaches to attract new members.

Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation), with a membership of more than 6 million, held a rally April 27 where Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed the crowd for the second straight year. The leaders of two opposition parties also gave speeches for the first time in seven years.

“We achieved high wage hikes from major companies to small businesses as though to wipe away the stagnant trends of the past 30 years,” said Rengo President Tomoko Yoshino. “I hold high expectations that this trend can be sustained.”

About 28,800 people, members of the unions under the Rengo umbrella, attended the rally in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park.

On April 18, Rengo released its fourth compilation of wage hikes gained by member unions in the annual “shunto” spring labor offensive. The average wage hike was 5.2 percent, the highest level in 33 years.

Union membership is a far cry from what it was decades ago. A labor ministry estimate of union membership put the figure at a record low 16.3 percent in 2023. In 1949, soon after the U.S.-led occupation legalized trade unions, membership stood at 55.8 percent of all working people.

Last year, Rengo also released the results of a survey which found younger workers had low levels of awareness of the unions at the companies where they work.

Among those in their teens, 57 percent said they did not know if they were a member of a union, while 40 percent of those in their 20s were unaware.

Unions are trying all sorts of measures to increase membership simply because their bargaining power in relation to management increases with greater solidarity.

The union at the ceramics manufacturer NGK Insulators Ltd. responded to requests from members for more networking with unions from other companies and began holding seminars from 2021 with unions representing companies in totally different business sectors.

Such seminars are held once every month or two in Tokyo and Aichi Prefecture. Unions from dozens of companies gather for discussions about social issues as well as more informal meetings to get to know each other better.

“We cannot discuss matters with management on an equal footing if there is low interest in the union among workers,” said Yuki Tsukamoto, the chairman of the NGK Insulators union. “We are trying to heighten awareness of our activities by returning to the starting point of listening to the views of members.”

In the case of startup company Stmn Inc., it began providing an app for unions from 2022 that imparts information to members more quickly.

The app is used by about 140 unions, including those at major companies such as trading giant Itochu Corp. and sporting goods manufacturer Asics Corp.

Likewise, the union in Aeon Financial Service Co., the financial company under the Aeon group of supermarkets and retail outlets, uses the app to inform members about the status of negotiations with management as well as leisure activities.

Union leaders began updating posts daily after members complained about a lack of transparency about what the union was doing.

Another issue is how to organize freelance workers.

The union set up by Uber Eats delivery workers opened an account on X to accept consultations from freelance workers who suddenly find their contracts dissolved. The union also uses the Zoom app to hold monthly online meetings.

Rengo also set up a website to provide support to free-lance workers.

“We want to erase the image of unions as being very formal,” said Hironobu Kawano, who heads Rengo’s comprehensive organization bureau. “We are striving to become an organization where everyone can come to consult about their problems.”

(This article was written by Takaya Katada and Keiichi Kitagawa.)

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