ABSTRACT
Clearly the issue of class conflict is on the hidden agenda in any examination of industrial unrest. However, it is not the intention to engage in any substantive discussion of class conflict or to reiterate theories of conflict in the industrial relations literature, which were dealt with earlier (Chapter 1). In that discussion, it was pointed out that the literature on industrial relations in Japan emphasizes 'traditional' harmony and consensus in the communication between management and labour. At the same time, there is a section of the literature (mainly the work of the convergence theorists) which sets out to de-bunk the myths in these perceptions. It is also the case that research in the area of conflict from either the classical culturalist or convergence perspectives tends to concentrate on the activities of Japan's large-scale unions. The shunto ritual of the unionized sector is frequently analysed but there is little documentation or analysis of other signals of conflict. Because of the importance of the comparative dimension, the following discussion will look at communication and conflict in both the core and peripheral sectors of the workforce. The main question to be considered is the extent to which salient features of the peripheral environment affect these central aspects of industrial relations.
