ABSTRACT
During the Koizumi Junichirō administration (2001-06), the Japanese government implemented structural economic reforms that were heavily influenced by neoliberal ideology. The main impact of those reforms has been a reduction in welfare provision, privatization of public enterprises, deregulation, a lower level of state protection for employees and the implementation of measures aimed at adjusting the boundaries1 between the state and the market. This neoliberal trend reflected the growing influence of the Japan Business Federation, Nippon Keidanren (hereafter Keidanren), over government policy. The reforms have pushed the boundaries of capital and labour into confrontations across Japan, in the form of struggles between companies/management associations and workers/labour unions. The boundaries of capital have continued to expand under the momentum of the Koizumi-era reforms, even after Prime Minister Asō Taro’s inauguration in September 2008 and the change of governing party to the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) in September 2009. A significant number of Japanese employees still face declining working conditions, in some cases even approaching levels of relative poverty, a measure of income inequality defined by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (OECD 2007). In response to the ongoing reinscription of labour boundaries and what some observers regard as the concomitant threat posed to democracy2 in Japan, some new countervailing forces have emerged from civil society seeking restitution of labour rights, and it may be argued that the sea change in the political status quo represented by the DPJ victory also reflects this new area of public concern. This chapter aims to provide an explanation of the confrontational relationship between management and worker/labour unions within a capitalist society in the context of the boundaries of capital and labour. The first section provides a historical overview of the dynamics of these boundaries throughout the development of post-war Japanese capitalism. This is followed in section 2 with an analysis of the expanding boundaries of capital in scope and intensity during the last two decades. Section 3 moves on to examine the close connection between Keidanren and Japanese political parties, which underlines the strength of the boundaries of capital. Section 4 then turns to labour’s boundary expansion, which is followed by an examination of the boundaries of labour and labour unions in section 5. Section 6 examines the relationship between labour unions and political parties. The final section assesses
the dynamics between capital and labour in terms of legislative, economic and corporate boundaries. This chapter argues that these boundaries are linked to the future status of democracy in Japan, with far-reaching consequences for ordinary citizens.
