ABSTRACT
Unions perceive a rapid shift in management priority towards the interests of shareholders at the expense of employees, further undermining a key pillar of the management-labour compromise. Nevertheless, it also relates to the inability of unions to organize new workplaces and to change members' perception of the value of unionism. Then the nature of the labour markets and industrial relations changed after World War I, when heavy industry started to replace traditional industries. Japan too has a relatively high level of tripartite dialogue and consultation with the enactment of amendment of labour legislation or major policy changes first being discussed in tripartite deliberative councils and a certain level of consensus reached beforehand between the parties concerned. Difficulties would also arise in trying to organize collective action on a basis of individual utilitarian calculations in line with the individualised type of employment relations that Nikkeiren and management are now supporting. Rengo Hakusho accepts to some extent the legitimacy of the companies' plight.
