Japan Federation of Labor

(Nihon Rodo Sodomei, also known as Sodomei), a Japanese trade-union organization. The Japan Federation of Labor grew out of the Yuaikai, a labor group founded in 1912. During the period of labor ferment that ensued under the impact of the October Revolution in Russia, the Yuaikai, then Japan’s sole labor organization, assumed the leadership of the labor movement. In 1921 the Yuaikai, now renamed the Japan Federation of Labor, retreated from its policy of class cooperation and embarked on a policy of class struggle. In October 1922 it adopted a revolutionary platform. Subsequently, the rightists strengthened their position among the federation’s leadership. In 1925 and 1926, the federation split twice, the leftist trade unions seceding first and the centrist trade unions following soon thereafter. As a result, the Japan Federation of Labor emerged as the nucleus of the conciliationist trade union movement. In 1940 the Japan Federation of Labor was disbanded, and its members joined the patriotic Imperial Rule Assistance Association (Sampo).