Yuaikai

(Fraternity), a Japanese workers’ organization that was founded in Tokyo in 1912 with the help of the capitalist Shi-busawa Eiichi. Its leading figure was Suzuki Bunji.

The Yuaikai, which sought to organize mutual assistance and educational work among the workers, initially advocated class cooperation. During the period of decline in the socialist and working-class movement that followed the Kotoku Denjiro affair, it was the only workers’ organization in Japan. As the working-class movement experienced an upsurge under the influence of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, the Yuaikai moved away from a policy of class cooperation and became a mass trade union organization. By 1920 it numbered 20,000 members and had branches in every major city. In 1919, the Yuaikai was reorganized as a federation of trade unions, which has been called the Nihon Rodo Sodomei (Japan Federation of Labor) since 1921 (seeJAPAN FEDERATION OF LABOR).