Who Speaks for Workers? Japan and the 1919 ILO Debates Over Rights and Global Labor Standards
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11213599 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dorothy Sue Cobble (0000-0002-9943-8226, Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 87 |
| Pages | 213-234 |
| Publication date | 2015-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Labor and Working-Class History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0147-5479 • E-ISSN: 1471-6445 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0147547914000271 |
| OpenAlex | W2604679451 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 35 |
Contrary to conventional wisdom, some of the most contentious disputes over international labor standards and worker rights occurred not between Western nations and the “rest” but within single nations. To explore the deep fissures in Japanese society over the rights of women and workers, I offer the first scholarly account of Japan's only woman representative to the ILO's inaugural 1919 Washington conference, elite social feminist Tanaka Taka, grandniece of renowned Japanese capitalist Shibusawa Eiichi. I recount her efforts in Japan and in Washington to secure free speech and economic rights for Japan's workers, men and women, and detail the hostilities she encountered from employers and organized labor. In addition, I reconstruct the parallel tale of factory supervisor Masumoto Uhei whose appointment as Japan's labor delegate led to widespread labor protests and a power struggle between trade unions and the state in Japan. The debate over who would speak for Japan's workers at the ILO and whether Japan would accept the labor standards being proposed by Western nations captured worldwide attention. It changed ideas in the East and the West about what Japan's workers deserved and desired and had lasting consequences for global politics and social policy
Delegate · Elite · Labor history · Labor relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · State (computer science · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · International Labor and Employment Law · Japanese History and Culture · Law
Factory Girls
Forging Democracy
Creating Socialist Women in Japan
Gender and Modernity in Japan's "Long Twentieth Century"
The State and Labor in Modern Japan
Japan, Race and Equality
Japan and the League of Nations
Flowers in Salt
The Rise of Labor in Japan
Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan
Telling Lives
Liberalism in Modern Japan
Organized Workers and Socialist Politics in Interwar Japan
Molding Japanese Minds
Liberalism in Modern Japan
U.S. Labor Women's Internationalism in the World War I Era
Japan, Race, and Equality
Creating Socialist Women in Japan
The Early Japanese Labor Movement
Organized Workers and Socialist Politics in Interwar Japan
Capitalism and Nationalism in Prewar Japan
Social Justice Feminists in the United States and Germany
Broken Silence
A Higher "Standard of Life" for the World
The Early Japanese Labor Movement
Drawing the Global Colour Line
Industrial Democracy for Japan
Capitalism and Nationalism in Prewar Japan; The Ideology of the Business Elite, 1868-1941
The Politics of Labor Legislation in Japan
The Pacific and the International Labor Organization
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,3 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2019 (4) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |