— 35 —
(e) Okaya is the center of the silk industry and also of the working woman slavery. We never heard of the existence of a Trade Union in the district.
3. In certain Industries.
(a) Metal industry: The Trade Union in the engineering, iron, steel, shipbuilding surpasses other industries in number, power and discipline; the destiny of the proletarian revolution in Japan largely rests on this section of workers. The following are the important Unions Metal workers' sections of Yuai-kai (in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Fukuoka, etc.); Artisans' Fraternal Society, Artisans' society, Koishikawa Labour Society, Engineers' Union of Japan, (above four in Tokyo); Osaka Iron Workers' Union, Copper workers' Union, (in Osaka); Labour Fraternal Society in Fukuoka.
(b) Printing industry: The Japanese printing workers are the most revolutionary section of the working classes. Numerically not large, but spiritually they are in the van. Shinyu-kai, Seishin-kai, Taishin-kai, (above in Tokyo and Yokohama) Printers' Union in Osaka, Kobe, Nagoya, etc.
(c) Mining industry: The miners are a powerfully organised body. Almost all organised miners belong to the All Japanese Miners' Federation which affiliates to Yuai-kai.
(d) Transport: There is a deadlock for organising the railwaymen, for all railways were nationalised in 1906 and the employees are controlled so bureaucratically—by means of the Station Committee akin to the British Whitley Council—that the real proletarian Union can not penetrate in this section. The only real Union is the Engine Drivers' Union. Workers in the tramways are making their own Union in the important cities. In Tokyo the Transport Workers' Union is most powerful.
The seamen have also a great number of organisations, but they are for the most part nothing more than labour exchanges or, friendly societies. The Seamen's Union of Japan (of Yuai-kai) is the strongest. The leading Unions are federated by the Japanese Seamen's Union.
Among carriers, dockers, stevedors, rikishaw-men, and other out-door workers, there are already a comparatively great number of associations. Free labours' Union, Rikishaw-men's Union in Tokyo, Osaka Stevedore and Carriers' Union in Osaka. As a rule, this section of workers represents the yellow type of Union.
