ABSTRACT
There are recollections by Kawabe's friends, written and edited after Kawabe Tomomi's death. Using these as source material and augmenting them with various studies of the bank as a workplace, one can follow the life of this Japanese bank worker and the changes in his workplace. The inquiry offers a point of entry into the history of white-collar workers during Japan's extraordinary era of high-speed growth. In February 1966, without any advance warning, Fuji Bank introduced a new personnel system with the goal of implementing what the bank called a fair pay system, which would reflect the demonstrated ability of workers and their contributions to building the bank's business. At Fuji Bank, the first step in the rationalization process was a program to mobilize employees more completely to achieve company objectives. The "three basic principles" adopted by the new Federation were: first, vertical organization; second, the recognition of union self-governance and third, emphasis on economic struggles.
