ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter situates the politics of labour market deregulation in Japan and Italy in a historical perspective by examining the ideological legacies of labour unions in these countries. Japanese labour unions were mostly composed of enterprise unions and prioritised the job protection of union members and business performance of their own companies rather than the maintenance of class solidarity. In addition, the two major national confederations of Sōhyō (General Council of Trade Unions of Japan) and Dōmei (Japanese Confederation of Labour) competed against each other rather than cooperated, and the private-sector unions affiliated with Dōmei increased their policy-making participation in the advisory councils at the cost of the public-sector unions affiliated with Sōhyō. In contrast, Italian labour unions were composed of industrial unions and more concerned with class solidarity despite being divided into the three national union confederations of CGIL (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Italian General Confederation of Labour), CISL (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, Confederation of Italian Labour Unions) and UIL (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Italian Union of Labour).
