Definitive Report - Report No 6, 1953

Case No 48 (Japan) - Complaint date: 08-JUL-50 - Closed

1. 737. Three communications containing allegations of infringements of trade union rights in Japan came before the Economic and Social Council at its Twelfth Session. As Japan was not at that time a Member of either the International Labour Organisation or the United Nations, these communications were not then transmitted to the I.L.O.
2. 738. However, at the request of the Economic and Social Council, the Secretary-General of the United Nations forwarded these communications on 15 March 1951 to the competent authorities in Japan. The Government of Japan replied by a note dated 8 March 1952 from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, transmitting the observations of the Government thereon. With the admission of Japan in the meantime into the International Labour Organisation, the Economic and Social Council decided on 20 May 1952 to refer both these communications and observations to the I.L.O.
3. 739. The Government of Japan was informed of that decision in a letter of 3 July 1952, with the advice that these communications and observations would be submitted, along with any further information it might care to communicate to the I.L.O, to the Committee on Freedom of Association at its next session, with a view to a preliminary examination. It was explained that inasmuch as these communications had already been brought to the attention of the Government of Japan and the Government had forwarded its observations thereon, the matter would be referred in the first instance to the Committee on Freedom of Association.

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 740. In its communication of 8 July 1950 to the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, the World Federation of Trade Unions alleges that the authorities and Occupation Forces in Japan are disregarding the existence of the people's right to freedom of expression and of meeting.
2. 741. On 30 May, in the course of a demonstration in which workers and students were demanding an improvement in the standard of living, the Japanese police and the American military police arrested eight of the demonstrators, who were sentenced without evidence or defence to five, seven and ten years of hard labour.
3. 742. On 5 June, two trade unionists, Junkichi Nakahara and Sigeo Shindo, were arrested at their homes, the first on the pretext of having infringed Article 311 of the Imperial Order and the second for having violated the Government Order forbidding meetings. In fact their only crime was having attempted to defend the rights of workers. Yasumasa Sato, Chairman of the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Government Employees and a member of the W.F.T.U, who was implicated in the affair of 30 May, was arrested on 7 June and a warrant was issued for the arrest of Hiroshi Nakagawa.
4. 743. Twenty-four members of the Japanese Communist Party and 17 members of the staff of Akahata, organ of the Japanese Communist Party, were prohibited from carrying on any political or social activities.
5. 744. The communication of the Confédération Générale du Travail (Paris) of 8 September 1950 and the communication of the Eenheidsvakcentrale (Unified Trade Unions, Amsterdam) of 20 September 1950, both addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, contain similar allegations.
6. 745. On 30 August the Japanese Government controlled by General MacArthur issued a decree under which the Zen-Ro-Ren, All-Japanese Liaison Council of Trade Unions, was dissolved and its assets confiscated. The reason given for this police action was the violation of the Occupation Statute but in reality the Zen-Ro-Ren was dissolved because the Japanese trade unions were conducting a systematic campaign for the defence of peace under the auspices of the World Federation of Trade Unions.
7. 746. General MacArthur had further declared that he would induce the Japanese Government to take repressive measures against 12 trade union leaders, including Kenta Kaneko, a member of the executive of the Zen-Ro-Ren and of the Executive Committee of the W.F.T.U.

C. Analysis of the Government's Reply

1. 747. The reply of the Government of Japan refers in the first place to trade union rights in Japan. The right of workers to organise and to bargain and act collectively is guaranteed in Article 28 of the Constitution of Japan of 1946. This Constitutional guarantee is implemented by a series of labour laws such as the Trade Union Law, and the Labor Relations Adjustment Law and other Government Orders. According to these laws and regulations all workers without distinction as to race, religion, sex, social status or family origin can join and organise trade unions, neither notice nor report to any governmental authorities being required in establishing a union. In order to safeguard the rights of workers, the Trade Union Law establishes the Labor Relations Commissions consisting of equal numbers of representatives of employers, workers and the public interest, which are responsible for preventing any attempt on the part of employers to get control of or interfere with trade unions.
2. 748. Under these guarantees the Japanese trade unions made rapid growth and the number of unions, starting from an almost negligible figure at the end of the war, has reached 27,000 with a total membership of 5,700,000.
3. 749. Trade union rights under the above-mentioned laws and Orders are actually guaranteed to every trade union regardless of its political complexion.
4. 750. However, with respect to any organisation, including a trade union, which engages in anti-occupation or other lawless activities outside the scope of its proper activities, the Japanese Government was obliged to take such measures as are stipulated in two memoranda of 4 January 1946 of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (S.C.A.P.). Similar measures were to be taken by the Japanese Government against any Japanese who engaged in anti-occupation or other illegal activities in accordance with another memorandum of the S.C.A.P of 10 September 1945 and other Government ordinances relating to it.
5. 751. The first of the S.C.A.P memoranda of 4 January 1946, above referred to, directed the Japanese Government to prohibit the formation of any political party, association or society and any activity on the part of any of them or of any individual or group whose purpose or the effect of which activity was a resistance or opposition to the Occupation Forces or to Orders issued by the Government in response to S.C.A.P directives. The second S.C.A.P memorandum of the same date directed the Japanese Government to remove and exclude undesirable personnel from public office.
6. 752. The Orders and Ordinances issued by the Japanese Government pursuant to S.C.A.P directives included:
   • (i) The Organisation Control Order of 4 April 1949 prohibiting any political party, association or organisation whose purpose or activity was resistance or opposition to Occupation Forces and to Government Orders issued in response to S.C.A.P directives and providing for the manner of dissolving any such political party, association or organisation.
   • (ii) Cabinet Order of 19 August 1948 concerning the custody and disposition of properties of dissolved organisations under an Order to be issued in consequence of the Potsdam Declaration, and providing that such properties shall be vested in the National Treasury.
   • (iii) Imperial Ordinance No. 1 of 4 January 1947 concerning the removal and exclusion of undesirable personnel from the public service.
   • (iv) Imperial Ordinance No. 311 of 1946 concerning the punishment for acts prejudicial to the Occupation objectives.
7. 753. In regard to the allegations of the World Federation of Trade Unions, the Government makes the following observations.
   • Incident of 30 May
8. 754. On 30 May 1950 a Convention named "People's Convention towards Realisation of Defence of the Communist Party and of Protection of Peace " was held at the Plaza of the Imperial Palace under the sponsorship of the Minshu Minzoku Sensen Junbi Kai (Democratic and National Front Preparatory Society). In the course of this demonstration, trouble started when a participant tried to snatch a notebook from a metropolitan policeman who was taking notes of the speeches. Several other participants manhandled the officers and soldiers of the Occupation Forces.
9. 755. By order of the Occupation Authorities, officers of the Metropolitan Police Board arrested eight of the demonstrators in co-operation with M.P.s of the Occupation Forces. They were tried by the Military Court of the Occupation Forces and were sentenced to be confined to hard labour from one to ten years. At the trial they were provided with two official and six private counsels, and witnesses were summoned by both the prosecution and the defence. All except one had been released on suspension of the sentences.
   • Arrest of Various Persons
10. 756. Junkichi Nakahara was arrested for having read on 3 June 1950, at the General Rise Convention for Breaking Through Industrial Crisis, a questionnaire to General MacArthur, in which it was stated that men under the command of the S.C.A.P struck, kicked and arrested six participants in the demonstration without giving any explanation and placed eight of them on provost trial without being provided with any Japanese lawyer. The Metropolitan Police Board considered this act contrary to the S.C.A.P directive of 10 September 1945 and was obliged to prosecute Nakahara in accordance with Imperial Ordinance No. 311.
11. 757. The Metropolitan Police Board arrested Shigeo Shindo for violation of Tokyo-To Regulation No. 111 of 1949 requiring any person sponsoring a parade or mass demonstration to give advance notice of at least 72 hours to the competent public safety committee, in connection with a mass demonstration of about 2,500 on 3 June 1950, held without such notice.
12. 758. On 5 June 1950 Yasumasa Sato and Hiroshi Nakagawa posted the same document read aloud by Nakahara at the entrance of Teino Building in Tokyo. The Metropolitan Police Board tried to arrest them for the same reason as in the case of Nakahara but they were then able to elude the police. Sato was captured on 8 June but Nakagawa had not been caught.
    • Purge of the Japan Communist Party Members and of the Editorial Staff of Akahata
13. 759. In a letter of 6 June 1950 S.C.A.P directed the Government to remove and exclude from public service 24 persons constituting the full membership of the Central Committee of the Japan Communist Party and to render them subject to the prohibition, restrictions and liabilities of his directives of 4 January 1946. The letter states that " Acting in common accord, they have hurled defiance at constituted authority, shown contempt for the processes of law and order, and contrived by false and inflammatory and other subversive means to arouse through resulting public confusion that degree of social unrest which would set the stage for the eventual overthrow of Constitutional government by force ".
14. 760. In another letter of 7 June 1950, S.C.A.P directed the Government to take the necessary administrative measures to incorporate, within this letter of 6 June 1950, 17 persons sharing responsibility for the policies governing the content of the communist organ Akahata. The letter states that " This journal has for some time assumed the role of mouthpiece for the most violent of lawless elements within the Communist Party and as such has defiled its news columns and editorial pages with licentious, false, inflammatory and seditious appeals to irresponsible sentiment in the effort to provoke defiance of constituted authority ". The Government acted accordingly.
15. 761. In regard to the allegations of the Confédération Générale du Travail (Paris) and the Eenheidsvakcentrale (Amsterdam), the Government's reply is as follows.
    • Dissolution of the Zen-Ro-Ren
16. 762. The Zen-Ro-Ren (Zenkoku-Rodokumiai-Renraku-Kyogikai), National Council of Labor Unions, was formed in March 1947 as a liaison organisation for national trade union centres to further united action in the labour movement. Among the most influential centres affiliated to it were the Sanbetsu (Congress of Industrial Unions) representing the left wing of the labour movement, and the Sodomei (National Federation of Labor) representing the right wing. The unsettled rivalry between these two organisations led to the withdrawal of the Sodomei from the Zen-Ro-Ren in June 1948.
17. 763. On 30 August 1950 the Government was obliged, because of the anti-occupation activities of the Zen-Ro-Ren, to order the dissolution of the organisation and to vest its properties in the National Treasury, in accordance with the Organisation Control Order, the Imperial Ordinance No. 1 of 4 January 1947, and the Cabinet Order of 19 August 1948. Eight instances of the Zen-Ro-Ren's anti-occupation activities were cited, consisting mainly in published statements derogatory to the Occupation Forces.
18. 764. One of these instances was a report published by the Secretaries Council of the Zen-Ro-Ren in connection with a labour conflict at the Matsuura Mining Works, which says in part that " this conflict has come to assume the character of a patriotic and heroic battle of the whole people against the alien imperialists trying to colonialise Japan and against the traitorous reactionaries who have no scruples in sacrificing the Japanese people for the benefit of foreign monopolistic capitalists ".
19. 765. The order of dissolution was made with the approval of S.C.A.P. It, however, covered only the central headquarters of the Zen-Ro-Ren, leaving untouched the district liaison councils as well as all constituent trade unions.
    • Measures against Trade Union Leaders
20. 766. By the same dissolution order, 12 principal officers of the Zen-Ro-Ren, including Kenta Kaneko, were purged from public offices.

D. D. The Committee's conclusions

1. 767. It appears from both the allegations in the complaints and the reply of the Japanese Government that the acts on which the allegations are based had their roots in the status of Japan as an occupied country. The dissolution of the Zen-Ro-Ren and the arrests of trade union leaders named in the complaint of the W.F.T.U were made by reason of activities which the Government felt obliged to consider to be in violation of occupation statutes then in force, while the other acts in question were done either upon specific directives of the S.C.A.P or directly under the authority of the Occupation Forces.
2. 768. In these circumstances, the Committee considers that, inasmuch as the complaints relate to a political situation in Japan which no longer exists, further consideration of the complaints would serve no useful purpose.

The Committee's recommendations

• (i) to take note with satisfaction of the assurance by the Government that trade union rights under existing laws in Japan are guaranteed to every trade union ;
• (ii) to express its hope that the Government may envisage the possibility of ratifying the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) ;
• (iii) to suggest that the Government may think it appropriate to examine the present situation in Japan in regard to the regulation of trade union activities, in order to ascertain whether certain modifications may not be made in existing legislation and administrative practices with a view to bringing them completely into harmony with the principles laid down in the above-mentioned Conventions; and
• (iv) to decide that in all the circumstances of the case it would not be profitable for the Governing Body to pursue the matter further.