ABSTRACT
Unions in Japan have accepted the lower wages of women workers to concentrate on protecting the wages and conditions of their core male membership. The rapid increase in the number of part-time jobs over the past fifteen years has not led to growth in the rate of unionisation for part-time workers. Union officials explain low rates of unionisation for part-time workers in terms of lack of interest by women and part-time workers. This explanation is paralleled in the early history of unions when it was argued that women lacked 'worker' consciousness and so were not interested in unions. Unions and their policies and practices are pertinent to the discussion of the construction of part-time work in Japan-of particular relevance is their reluctance to unionise and their focus on the needs of full-time workers, especially male full-time workers.
