Page:Sanzō Nosaka - A Brief Review of the Labour Movement in Japan (1921).pdf/39

  and 150 Unions or Branches covering the whole country (from Hokkaido to Manchuria).

There is no law directly prohibiting the formation of the Trade Unions nor recognizing them. Convinced of the impossibility of wiping out the workers' combinations, the government is now drafting a bill which is expected to be brought forward at the session of the Diet in 1922, in order to restrict the sphere of labour movement and to destroy the true proletarian Union.

Although Japanese workers have never experienced such a brutal suppression of their associations as the British workers did in 1800–1824, and the Russian in 1874, the Article 17 of Police Law (1900), which punishes the instigation for strikes and for the increase of Trade Union membership, is effective enough to hamper the Trade Union activities. The following figure shows, how many strike leaders are thrown into prison every year by the Law.

If we count the victims arrested under the charge of „breach of peace“, etc. by Criminal Law and Press Law, they reach a considerable number.