Book Reviews : ANTHONY WOODIWISS, Law, Labour & Society in Japan - From Repression to Reluctant Recognition. London and New York: Routledge, 1992, xii + 187 pp., £40 hardback
| DOI | 10.1177/096466399400300211 |
| Date | 01 June 1994 |
| Published date | 01 June 1994 |
| Author | Debi S. Saini |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
BOOK REVIEWS
ANTHONY
WOODIWISS,
Law,
Labour &
Society
in
Japan -
From
Repression
to
Reluctant
Recognition.
London
and
New
York:
Routledge,
1992,
xii
+
187 pp.,
£40
hardback.
It
is
widely
believed
that
both
the
industrial
development
of
Japan
and
its
industrial
relations
system
are
unique.
Japanese
trade
unionism,
too,
has
caught
the
attention
of
foreign
scholars
and
observers
mainly
due
to
its
unusual
structural
characteristics.
The
law-labour
relationship
in
Japan
is
also
believed
to
be
vastly
different
from
that
prevailing
in
other
systems.
There,
harmony
is
emphasized
as
a
social
value.
Parties
avoid
resorting
to
adjudicative
institutions
even
in
case
of
rights
disputes,
and
seek
compromise
through
conciliatory
means
on
the
premise
of
commonality
of
interests
of
capital
and
labour.
And
Japan
is
known
to
be
a
less
pluralistic
and
more
ideologically
integrated
society.
But,
what
is
the
state
of
capital
and
labour’s
rights
and
powers
there,
and
what
forces
have
contributed
to
this
uniqueness?
Also,
what
sustains
this
dispensation,
and
to
whose
advantage?
Western
scholars
have
shown
considerable
inquisitiveness
in
exploring
these
questions.
Law,
Labours
Society
tn
Japan
seeks
to
explain
capital-labour
relations
in
Japan
in
the
context
of
this
thinking
in
pre-
and
post-war
situations.
It
is
a
scholarly,
persuasively
argued
and
intellectually
stimulating
addition
to
the
Japanese
history
of
labour
law
written
by
a
sociologist.
It
shows
why,
contrary
to
the
position
in
Western
societies,
collective
labour
actions
have
yet
to
acquire
toleration
and
a
legal
basis
in
Japan.
The
main
focus
of
Woodiwiss
is
an
examination
of
the
wider
social
contexts
within
which
industrial
relations
in
Japan
have
developed.
His
central
thesis
is
that
these
contexts
disclose
a
built-in
social
structural
resistance
to
the
existence,
acceptance
and
autonomy
of
trade
unions.
He
therefore
dispels
the
impression
that
Japanese
trade
unions
have
achieved
an
advanced
state
of
legal
and
social
recognition
so
as
to
enforce
their
civil
and
other
rights.
This
has
been
done
by
examining
the
position
of
labour
rights
in
each
of
the
three
periods
into
which
modern
Japanese
history
can
be
divided.
Another
important
feature
of
this
excellent
analysis
is
to
explain
the
weakness
of
law
as
a
means
of
enforcing
labour
rights.
Woodiwiss
has
based
his
formulations
on
anecdotal
evidence,
personal
observations
and
interactions
with
Japanese
sociological
community
during
his
five-year
stay
at
Japanese
universities.
Woodiwiss,
in
his
analysis,
accepts
Marxist
theories
of
law,
except
that
he
rejects
one
of
the
central
substantive
tenets
of
traditional
Marxist
theory,
namely
the
belief
that
in
capitalist
society
law
is
essentially
an
instrument
of
protection
of
private
property.
Rather,
his
analysis
is
based
on
a
belief
that
in
democratic
capitalism
law
has
the
capability
of
demonstrating
certain
autonomy
in
its
relation
to
the
class
structure.
This
is
similar
to
the
SOCIAL
&
LEGAL
STUDIES
(SAGE,
London,
Thousand
Oaks
and
New
Delhi),
Vol.
3
(1994), 309-318
8
309
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