Members of unions under Rengo, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, gathered for a rally in Yoyogi Park where Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and leaders of opposition parties addressed the crowd. Despite achieving significant wage hikes during the spring labor offensive, union membership in Japan is at its lowest ever, with many younger workers unaware of their union affiliation at work. This has led unions to experiment with different methods to recruit new members and strengthen their bargaining power against management.
Rengo, with over 6 million members, celebrated wage hikes as high as 5.2 percent, the highest in 33 years, during the annual spring labor offensive. However, the overall trend shows a decline in union membership, reaching a record low of 16.3 percent, compared to 55.8 percent in 1949. To address this, surveys have revealed that younger workers exhibit low levels of awareness about their union membership, prompting unions to seek innovative solutions to engage them.
Efforts to attract new members include initiatives such as networking seminars between unions representing different business sectors, like the one organized by NGK Insulators Ltd., and the introduction of apps to disseminate information quickly to members, as seen in the case of startup company Stmn Inc. Aeon Financial Service Co. uses technology to keep members informed about negotiations with management and leisure activities. Additionally, unions are adapting to support freelance workers, with the establishment of an Uber Eats delivery workers' union and a website by Rengo offering assistance to freelancers, demonstrating a shift towards a more accessible and modern approach to union representation.