Silence in Print, Anger in Print: The Kobunsha Dispute and the Shadow of the 1970s" - Early 1970s

Silence in Print, Anger in Print: The Kobunsha Dispute and the Shadow of the 1970s" - Early 1970s

In the early 1970s, the Japanese economy was shaken by the end of high economic growth and the signs of oil shocks. The labor dispute that erupted at Kobunsha, a publishing house in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward, is etched as a struggle that symbolizes the distortion of economic growth during such a time. The first union, which consisted mainly of the editorial and production departments, stood united in strikes and picketing against the backdrop of dissatisfaction with overwork and compensation. The company, however, formed a second union in an attempt to neutralize the union. Furthermore, members of the Sumiyoshi-Rengo Kohei family were mobilized to provide security, and the fact that the directors of the union were contractors to deal with the dispute was revealed.

Here we see the dark structure of Japanese companies in the 1970s, which attempted to suppress the legitimate claims of workers by force. The "Nissei Piquet Incident" is particularly symbolic, in which union member Shingo Yoshikawa was convicted in a criminal trial for "unlawful arrest" when he moved a second union member in order to persuade him to join the union. Ironically, however, the trial also brought to light the company's unfair method of suppressing the dispute. In the civil case, the first union won the case and the unfair labor practices of the company were recognized by the judiciary.

This dispute demonstrated the dual nature of the judiciary at the time, which was harsh to workers in criminal cases and gave a certain degree of approval in civil cases, and also provoked a debate over the Japanese "theory of the inadmissibility of illegality". This never-ending conflict was not merely a confrontation within the publishing industry, but a cross section of history in which corporations, the violent judiciary, and the labor movement intersected, and the aftermath of this conflict continues to reside between the lines of the printed word.