Kobunsha Labor-Management Disputes and the Era of Criminalization: Cracks in the Labor Movement in 1975

Kobunsha Labor-Management Disputes and the Era of Criminalization: Cracks in the Labor Movement in 1975

In 1975, Japan had reached the end of its rapid economic growth and was suffering from recession and inflation in the aftermath of the oil crisis. The economic stagnation destabilized labor-management relations, and labor disputes broke out frequently due to dissatisfaction with wage restraints and layoffs. In the publishing and printing industries, resistance to long working hours and low wages was growing stronger, and conflicts with management were becoming more serious. Amid these tensions, labor-management disputes at Kobunsha continued for more than two years, eventually leading to the arrest of union members and raids on their homes.

At one point, an unusual situation developed in which the labor union was controlled by gangsters. When the control of the gangs came to an end, the state power took an active role. The Metropolitan Police Department's Public Safety Division 2 and the Otsuka Police Department rounded up thirteen executives of the Hikari Workers' Union, including its chairman, Fukuyama, on charges of violence and assault. The arrests were made just before the conciliation at the Central Labor Relations Commission, as if to draw the curtain back by judicial intervention. This process attracted public attention as a typical example of the transformation of a mere workplace problem into a criminal case.

Motoo Ichikawa declared the situation in which co-workers were arrested one after another "an anomaly," and emphasized that a solution could only be reached through discussion. On the other hand, Tokusaburo Shimizu believed that the expansion of union activities was causing inconvenience to others and that the arrests were justified. The internal division of opinion mirrored the conflicting lines of the labor movement and indicated a situation in which labor-management conflict had repercussions for society as a whole.

Founded in 1945, Kobunsha was a general publisher that, since shortly after World War II, had developed a wide range of publishing activities, from women's magazines and literary magazines to mystery novels and academic books, and was one of the major publishing houses along with Kodansha and Shueisha. Its popular magazines, such as its flagship "Josei Jishin" (Women's Own), boasted high circulation and had great social influence. In the 1970s, however, the publishing recession and pressure to cut staff led to worsening working conditions, and labor unions began to protest strongly. The Kobunsha labor-management dispute is regarded as a representative case of the labor movement in the publishing industry, and became a symbol of the cultural industry's involvement in the vortex of economic recession and social unrest.

Compared to other cases of the same period, the characteristics of this case become even clearer. The 1974 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing, while not directly related to the labor movement, spread the impression in society that a radicalized labor movement was a threat to public safety, and as a result, the labor movement in Japan, such as that of Kobunsha, was forced to take a stand against the government. As a result, it became easier for the police to intervene in labor-management disputes such as the one at Kobunsha.

Although limited in scale, the Kobunsha case is symbolic in that it demonstrated the fact that criminal cases can occur even in the cultural industry. During the recessionary period following Japan's rapid economic growth, the labor movement was often treated as an "incident," creating a situation in which legitimate union activities could easily be confused with violent elements. This was a mirror of the contradictions of the labor movement in Japanese society in the mid-1970s, and the cracks were deeply engraved in both the economic and political spheres.