Rengo Presidential election begins

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) will re-elect their officers at their regular convention on October 2 and 3. The Presidential election is a focus of considerable interest. Two individuals have stepped forward as candidates for the post: Rengo's current President, Kiyoshi Sasamori, formerly with the Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Worker's Unions of Japan, and Tsuyoshi Takagi, President of the Japanese Federation of Textile, Chemical, Food, Commercial, Service and General Workers' Unions, who is currently Rengo's vice President.

This will be the third time, following the 1995 election of the General Secretary and the 1997 Presidential election, that an official post will be decided by an election.

Many members have called strongly for a fair and open election process, and have demanded that the upcoming Presidential election be used to revitalize the labor movement through in-depth discussions on what form these movements should take. Rengo therefore decided to publicize, via its website, the two candidates' views and assertions.

The upcoming election will be fought, one-on-one, between Mr. Sasamori, who has led Rengo during his 2-term, 4-year tenure as General Secretary and during the past 2 years as President, and Mr. Takagi, who comes from the largest private-sector industrial union, boasting the top membership rate of all the Rengo member unions of small and medium-sized enterprises and part-time workers. The election will test the members' confidence in Mr. Sasamori himself as well as in current developments at Rengo.

In the open debate, the two candidates discussed issues such as the organization of atypical workers such as non-organized or part-time/temporary workers; policy/system tasks such as pension system reforms; the strengthening of small- to medium-scale labor movements; and the revitalization of regional movements. However, no major differences were seen between their basic stances.

One noteworthy difference was Mr. Takagi's assertion that he would make use of his ample past experience, citing a specific numerical goal of restoring the union membership rate to 25% within 5 years. He also stressed that changing of the guard was an effective tactic during times of change and revival.

Mr. Sasamori emphasized, while drawing attention to his positive track record, that he was taking adequate and steady steps to revive the labor movement, and stated that he wished to nurture the seeds that he had planted so far.