Japan’s Unions Risk Irrelevance as Contract Workforce Expands
Organized labor has mostly shunned nonsalaried employees, who are the first to be cut in a downturn.
Keiko Tani (left) and Hiroko Nitta of Women’s Union Tokyo.
Photographer: Noriko Hayashi for Bloomberg Businessweek
In a three-story apartment building in a residential area of Japan’s capital, a tiny sticker on the door of Room 203 announces the presence of the Women’s Union Tokyo. The timeworn but tidy apartment is filled with books and decorated with signs bearing uplifting messages. One reads, “#With You”; another, “No Longer Alone.” Inside, Keiko Tani and Hiroko Nitta counsel women who’ve lost their jobs during the pandemic. Demand for the pair’s services is higher than ever.
Their clients are mostly part-timers and contract workers, who in Japan are the first to be cut in a downturn. “We’ve tried to empower women by representing their voices so that they can keep working with pride,” Tani says. “But in reality, the situation has been deteriorating.”