The Limits of Enterprise Unionism: An Empirical Examination of the Causes of Union Decline in Japan

The United States' labor force is rapidly becoming a nonunion labor force. Outside of the United States, many other OECD countries have also experienced declines in union density. During the 1970's and 1980's, the country that experienced the most dramatic union decline after the United States is Japan. In this paper, we consider wherther explanations of union decline developed in the United States can account for the process of union decline in Japan. In particular, we use data from a newly completed Japan Institute of Labor(JIL) survey to assess whether rising employer resistance offers a plausible explanation for Japanese union decline. We find that Japanese unions do share with their counterparts in the United States an apparent inability to organize new firms. Relative to the United States, however, the difference in wages and benefits between union and nonunion workers is very small. Non-union workers (particularly males)are interested in unions to the extent that they improve wages and working conditions. Thus the absence of union wage and benefit differentials severely limits the ability of unions to attract new members. Evidence also suggests that employers have reduced their level of resistance to unions during the recent period of rapid union decline. Japanese unions do dramatically improve the ability of employees to 'voice' dissatisfaction on workplace issues. However this 'voice' effect does not appear to reduce stated exit propensities.