ABSTRACT
I am going to describe how a conflict between the union and the management of a medium-sized Japanese company was resolved. The company in question, of which I made a study in 1970–l, 1 was a corrugated board company with eight factories in various parts of Japan, employing about a thousand people. It had certain distinctive features: a rather young president, and an unusual relationship with its parent company; but there was no reason to suppose that it was wholly unrepresentative of Japanese companies of its size. I hope to show, by describing a dispute that took place within it, how a union which was unable to employ any of the tactics such as striking or going slow, which one would normally associate with strong unions, and which in the opinion of its own members was a weak and ineffectual union, was nevertheless able to gain advantage of an undoubtedly strong and resolute management.
