Workers' Control in Japan

Workers' Control in Japan is unfortunately largely unknown among the Anglophone left, however, we do have access to some information on it. Unlike workers' control in most other countries, Japan's peaked following the end of World War II, a trend only matched in Indonesia.

During the Allied Occupation of Japan

Main Article: Allied Occupation of Japan

Beginning in 1945 under US occupation, a mass strike wave hit Japan after trade unions were legalised. Around 10% of these involved (or 133 strikes, involving over 100,000 workers) led to work-ins. Many workers were angered at the war profiteering by Japanese capitalists and argued that the democratisation of Japan should extend to the workplace.

Workers who took control of their place of work took over all aspects of production, the buying and selling of their resources and negotiating with employers. The strikes were extremely peaceful and would cease if wages were increased (proving the seizing the means doesn't need to kill anyone, to the anger of capitalists and Leninists a like). The main industries affected were newspapers, shoe factories, hospitals,coal mines, municipal government offices and steel works. Wages and productivity massively rose in the early stages of workers' control, but often fell after a week or two, this is for two reasons:

1. Inexperienced workers often increased production at the expense of damaging equipment
2. Workers became increasingly anxious about losing their jobs

One boss who refused to surrender the keys to his plant was locked up in his office for four days. Such acts as forcing employers to hold interviews, trespassing or seizing residences, and making unau- thorized searches for commodity hoards have been regarded as "minor offenses" which the police condoned. One of the few cases regarded as extreme involved striking coal miners in Hokkaido who not only took over the Mitsubishi mines but constituted themselves a "People's Court" to try their employers and top company officials as war criminals. Trade unions at various points refused to accept demands and threatened taking over the entire coal industry if certain demands were not met. Although initially accepted as profit-sharing and wage increases were given to the working class, the police began to repress episodes of workers' control, thus being a perfect example of co-optation.

References

Production control in Japan at libcom.org