894.017/12–943
The Acting Political Adviser in Japan (Sebald) to the Secretary of State
No. 774
[Received December 22.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to this Mission’s despatch No. 465 of July 24, 1948, concerning the Supreme Commander’s letter of July 22 to former Premier Ashida Hitoshi directing revision of the National [Page 917] Public Service Law primarily for the purpose of prohibiting strikes among government workers, and to a number of subsequent despatches on this subject.
On November 30, 1948 the National Diet passed the government’s bill revising the Public Service Law. Concurrent with passage of the bill, the Supreme Commander issued a public statement on December 1 relative to the legislation, five copies of which are enclosed.1 According to this statement, the Japanese public service has been elevated to a new dignity and has been assured against the invasion of licentious minority pressures. The Supreme Commander’s statement, affirming that the new legislation has no bearing on the rights of labor engaged in private enterprises, denied that it is a negation of fundamental workers’ rights in the trade union movement. As in his letter of July 22 to the Prime Minister, the Supreme Commander again noted that the principles involved in this legislation are in conformity with the views of President Roosevelt with the significant exception that the new Public Service Law embodies the principles of collective bargaining for the employees of public corporations. Striking at determined communist opposition to revision of the law, the Supreme Commander declared:
It is a strange political and social phenomenon that many of those very employees for whom this wise and advanced legislation is designed to relieve and protect remain under the spell of a thoroughly discredited leadership whose ultimate goal is retrogression rather than progress, discord and confusion rather than harmony and stability.
The new legislation, in the Supreme Commander’s view, is therefore “a victory for those who seek the integrity of representative government over those who would leave government easy prey to minority subjugation”.
Five copies of the text in Japanese and English translation of the bill for amending the National Public Service Law are enclosed with this despatch. The printed (Japanese) and mimeographed (English) texts are the form in which the bill was introduced in the Diet on November 11. Revisions in the text made in the course of the Diet’s deliberations on the bill are indicated in ink in the Japanese text and in the English translation.
The revision of the Public Service Law as initiated by the Supreme Commander’s letter of July 22 has been the occasion of heated controversy in Japanese political and labor circles. On receipt of the Supreme Commanders letter, the Japanese Government (then headed by Dr. Ashida) issued a Cabinet Ordinance on July 30 which prohibited further strikes and labor agitation by government workers pending [Page 918] formal revision of the Public Service Law by the National Diet. The use of a Cabinet Ordinance to implement the Supreme Commander’s letter as a temporary measure having the force of law until legislation could be passed provoked strong opposition from communists and labor leaders who contested the constitutionality of such a procedure. The Japan Communist Party spearheaded this opposition through party agitators among leftist labor unions and through the organization of a front group called the Democracy Protection League (Minshu-shugi Yogo Remmei). During August and September efforts were made to foment nation-wide strikes and walkouts among government workers, with special attention directed at the government railway workers. In an effort to circumvent the Cabinet Ordinance, “job desertion” tactics keynoted this labor agitation. Government railway workers, particularly in Hokkaido, deserted their posts in such large numbers that it appeared for a time that railway traffic would be seriously curtailed.
The Japanese Government, however, realized that it enjoyed SCAP support in enforcing the Cabinet Ordinance, and began large-scale arrests of job deserters and communist agitators among railway workers. These large-scale arrests, including several prominent communist party members, soon broke the back of the job desertion movement, but such tactics only intensified communist opposition to revision of the Public Service Law.
On October 6 the Ashida Cabinet resigned because of implication of Cabinet members in the Showa Denko scandal. Mr. Yoshida Shigeru, head of the Democratic Liberal Party and former Prime Minister, was elected by the Diet to form a new government on October 14. The new Yoshida Cabinet found revision of the Public Service Law a priority order of business. Although Prime Minister Yoshida and his conservative party were in full accord with the purpose of revising the Public Service Law, the manner in which the Prime Minister was confronted with this problem has unquestionably proved costly from the political standpoint.
Mr. Yoshida was elected to the premiership after a triangular conflict in the Diet among the three major parties, none of which enjoys a majority in the Lower House. Although he has the advantage of heading a single party cabinet in contrast to the previous coalition governments, his position on the basis of his election by the Diet is a tenuous one. Mr. Yoshida and his party advisers are convinced that a new general election will assure the Democratic Liberal Party a far stronger position in the Lower House if not a clear-cut majority. They have been convinced, however, that the election must be held as soon as possible before Mr. Yoshida suffers any decline in prestige. It was therefore [Page 919] important, from the Democratic Liberal Party’s standpoint, that the Yoshida Cabinet effect an early dissolution of the Diet and have a general election as soon as possible.
In addition to the constitutional question which rose over the Cabinet’s right to effect dissolution under Article 7 of the Constitution, the Yoshida Government was saddled with the task of meeting the Supreme Commander’s desire for early revision of the National Public Service Law. It was therefore necessary to abandon plans to dissolve the Diet and to proceed with revision of the law. This disadvantageous and somewhat embarrassing situation has been exploited by the opposition parties, and the delay incurred in securing passage of the amendments to the Public Service Law may prove politically costly to the Yoshida Cabinet when a general election is finally held.
The bill for amending the Public Service Law was introduced in the Diet on November 11. The most significant political development in the course of deliberations on the amendments was the Social Democratic Party’s final decision to withdraw its support of the bill. When the Ashida Cabinet first began drafting a bill, the Social Democratic Party pledged its support, although at a later date considerable opposition developed within the party as to the manner in which the bill treated the matter of collective bargaining by government workers. Finally, however, the party under Mr. Katayama Tetsu’s leadership decided to oppose the bill on the eve of the vote.
The passage of the bill amending the National Public Service Law on November 30 has been received with mixed feelings by the Japanese public. It has been difficult for many Japanese to consider the bill independently of the political bickering which characterized the Diet session at which it was passed.…
Throughout newspaper comment on the subject, the significance of the bill is somewhat lost in general discussion of the character of the Diet session and the tactics of the government and opposition parties.
Most conservative sentiment, however, is strongly in favor of the revised legislation as a device to curb radical labor excesses and assure the stability of the public service. In this sense, the Supreme Commander’s statement of December 1 received as much if not more praise than the bill itself.
While most sentiment appears favorable toward the amended Public Service Law, the Japan Communist Party has launched a vigorous campaign for the repeal of its recent revision.…
The Socialists’ position as opponents of the bill is, however, an awkward one. Although Mr. Katayama had originally pledged his party to support revision of the law, opposition, particularly within the left wing, gradually increased as party leaders began to realize [Page 920] the extent to which labor is opposed to the revision. With the communists the only political party categorically opposed to the bill, the Social Democratic Party found itself in the position of possibly alienating much of labor support. It is very likely, therefore, that the Japan Communist Party’s determined and vigorous opposition to the revision of the law forced the hand of the Social Democratic Party. It is doubtful, however, if the communists originally intended to have such a reaction take place. While the communists may claim credit for forcing the Socialists to oppose the bill, they must also reckon with a Social Democratic effort to capitalize on its opposition in future appeals for labor support.
With one major party on record as opposed to the revision of the National Public Service Law, this question will undoubtedly become an important issue in the coming general election. At the same time, the position taken by the Social Democratic Party tends to bring its leftwing members much closer to the communist party, notwithstanding the uncomplimentary manner in which the communists have criticized the action of the Social Democratic Party as a whole. Already reports indicate that in some of the local districts, particularly in Aomori Prefecture, communist and socialist leaders are beginning to work together for the coming election campaigns.
For the immediate future it appears that controversy over revision of the Public Service Law will bring about considerable realignment in the political field. Leftist political leaders fully realize the extent to which organized labor, particularly the powerful National Congress of Industrial Unions, opposed revision of the Public Service Law. The “labor vote” has become a recognized political potential in postwar Japan, which the leftist parties cannot afford to ignore. The Social Democratic Party, composed of heterogeneous elements ranging from liberal to radical, has never been a cohesive, well-knit political body. It has suffered serious internal dissension among its complex elements and recent bolting of malcontent groups has threatened to break up the party. The inconsistent action concerning revision of the Public Service Law has further intensified the internal pressure which threatens to disrupt the party. In order to bid successfully for labor support, it now appears that the Social Democratic Party will either be radically reorganized or be disbanded and rebuilt as an entirely new party around its more leftist leadership.
The Japan Communist Party, on the other hand, enjoys a consistent, clear-cut record with respect to its opposition to revision of the Public Service Law. How vigorously the communist party intends to make the law’s revision a political issue in the coming election can be seen by Mr. Dobashi Kazuyoshi’s formal joining of the party on December [Page 921] 6 in order to run for the Diet as a communist candidate. (This Mission’s A–242 of December 7, 19482 incorrectly reported Mr. Dobashi as head of the National Congress of Industrial Unions. Mr. Kan Makoto is chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the NCIU.) As head of the All-Japan Communication Workers Union, Mr. Dobashi has already waged a determined campaign against revision of the Public Service Law in the name of organized labor. He has become more identified with this opposition than any other public figure.
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The controversy over the National Public Service Law has strengthened the position of the conservatives. The Democratic Party regards Mr. Katayama’s withdrawal of support for revision of the Public Service Law as unwarranted betrayal of a pledge. The basis of the coalition between the Social Democratic and Democratic parties, which made possible the Katayama and Ashida cabinets, has probably been undermined beyond repair. How far this will stimulate cooperation between the Democratic Party and Prime Minister Yoshida’s Democratic Liberal Party, or assist the movement for the creation of a new conservative party remains conjectural, but such a coalition or merger is being seriously considered.
The conservative forces have also secured, through the revision of the National Public Service Law, a powerful weapon to combat the communists. By protecting the public service from strikes and other forms of labor agitation, the ability of the communists to attack conservative cabinets by labor strife in the government service has been nullified. While the communists will unquestionably develop other tactics to utilize government service personnel, they have lost what has heretofore been their most powerful device for bringing direct pressure on the government—a general strike of government workers.
Respectfully yours,