The Rodo Kumiai Kiseikai (the Association for the Promotion of Labor Unions) (労働組合期成会)
The Rodo Kumiai Kiseikai was an association founded in the Meiji Period for the purpose of forming labor unions. It was formed on July 5, 1897. The executive head was Fusataro TAKANO, and the managers were Sen KATAYAMA and so on. They delivered speech meetings in various places urging establishment of craft union, and soon after it was organized, Tekko Kumiai (Ironworkers' Union), Nihon Tetsudo Kyoseikai (Japanese Railway Workers' Reform Society) and Kappanko Kumiai (The Printers' Union) were formed. All of them were in the form of craft union, and their major activity was mutual aid between members. Takano himself opened a synactic shop and supported the activity. In addition, it published the labor movement's journal "Rodo sekai" (Labor world), and the number of its members reached 5700 in 1899. However, when the Security Police Law was enforced in 1900, it declined together with the unions' economic difficulties and employers' countercharge. It disappeared in 1901.