It has been said for long time that, "The
Japanese stopped getting angry." How many people are getting
angry in reaction to the industrial scandals and companies' unjust
restructuring lay-offs, or the national and the local tax increases?
However, if you listen closely, you can hear trembling and angry
voices, which may be lonely, isolated or concealed for a long
time underneath the surface. Some of those voices have such anger
beyond sorrow feeling. The first of the 2006 unique series will
be on "Anger".
Eight o'clock in the morning, a middle-aged man with a guitar appeared in front of the gate of the Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. Hachioji office of Hachioji city in Tokyo.
The wave of workers flow into the gate avoiding eye contact Playing a guitar with my fingers in the work gloves with tips cut open, I shout Please live, live like a human! Don't turn your head away from what you see (Lyrics from "The sunlight")
No one stops to listen, but Tesuro Tanaka with a guitar has continued to appeal to the Oki workers for the last 24 years. He was fired from Oki Electric on June 29, 1981. Requesting his job back, he started the protest the next day. This was the birth of, , people called him,the"Singer Song Fighter". The incident that changed Tanaka's destiny was the mass layoff of 1350 workers at Okidenki in 1978. The trade union had gradually been loosing power before the company's re-structuring plan and the workers who supported the laid off members were becoming increasingly isolated. Tanaka was in the midst of this whirlpool.
For the upcoming year the company started doing morning exercises before work commenced . The supervisors encouraged workers saying that by participating in the morning exercise, they could show their loyalty to the company. It was clearly a loyalty test. Among 200 workers on the floor, Tanaka was the only employee who did't participate. "To be honestly, sitting alone made my heart pound." But, "through the act of carrying out my feelings , I regained my composure."
Around that time, he was removed from his job as an engineer, and transferred to a job to assist others. Childish harassments started in many work places.
"I was the leader of the mandolin club.We always played the instruments together. Gradually the members quit the club one by one, due to their bosses threats and harassments." (Lyrics from "Harassment") ("I" is Mr. Tanaka)
At the beginning of the struggle of the mass layoff , the majority of approximately 2,000 employees received struggling members flyers, however, within a half year, the number was reduced to single digit. "I was shocked to see that many people changed their opinion in such a short period of time and I worried about this same thing happening in our society as a whole. This was the starting point of my activity."
In June 1980, he ran as a candidate for union office, and he criticized the attitude of the company. "If I ran as a candidate for the union official in the election, I knew that the company's attack toward me would become harder. But I knew I would regret it if I didn't do it."
In June 1981, he was transferred to the sales department, which he was not familiar with at all. That was like a death notice to him. He refused the transfer, and he was fired as he had expected to be.
He carefully thought out a plan to support his family, a wife and two children ages 2 and 4 years old. He had also bought a condominium a couple years prior with a large loan. "I thought I couldn't talk about social justice if I couldn’t even protect my own family." He decided that if he had to use the saving of 400,000 yen he would sell the condominium. He also thought of working as a truck driver.
The guitar class he opened 5 months after being fired started getting students. His wife Kaoru (51) who was a licensed kindergarten teacher also had a regular income. One day, Kaoru was asked by their son, "what is my father's job?" She took her son to the father who was standing in front of the company and said, "He is fighting against the monstrous beast at this company." Kaoru said, "I never thought the choice he made was a mistake", "I wanted him to fight with all his youthful vigor, even if it meant him getting fired."
For 24 years, except in the case when it was physically impossible because of touring outside of the district, he never missed the protest action in front of the gate at 8:00 AM. On weekends and holidays, he also comes at various time,
praying for "peace in the world", praying for company presidents, who passed away after firing him, to stop the discrimination and harassment on the workers.
At the "special sit-in on the 20th year after the firing" in June 2001, Shizuka Kamei, a member of the House of Representatives, and also the chair of State Affairs Investigation of the Liberal Democratic Party at that time, also participated in the sit-in.
He not only plays the guitar but he has also gives a speech that aggressively criticizes the company as a whole.
But there hasn't been any harassment from the Okidenki employees ever since he started standing in front of the gate.
"My protest actions are against the company's violation against ihe human right of workers , and not because I hate those employees. I believe they understand that. The anger toward the unfair will change the character of the suffering. Not only will it make people happier but it also brings him happiness. Action based on hate might have power for a short period, but it will eventually destroy itself. The anger and hate are different."
The labor movement reporter Satoshi Kamata said, " At the time of the mass lay-off period, Mr. Tanaka wasn't active yet. He became active after he started witnessing the company's unjust policy, and started criticizing the injustice. His style of using songs portraying the reality of white collar workers and this appeal for social justice has created a new culture within the labor movement."
The lawsuit Tanaka filed against Oki Electric was lost in the Supreme Court in 1995. He also filed several cases against the company and law enforcement agencies regarding his forced removal at the stockholders meeting as a stockholder. Until now he has not won any cases yet. Why does he keep pressing charges against them"The proud record of losing cases?"
"The present court system is taking the side of power and large companies. The record for the future I would like to leave is that the court systems have had unrational reasons for denying my cases over and over again. That record will be useful in the future to reform the judicial system, so that it will operate more fairly.
In 2003, 2 employees of Oki Electric were arrested for bribing the mayor of Yufuin, Oita prefecture, regarding public funded work. Tanaka was able to get the 2000 pages of the investigative document of the case, and he came to understand the fact that major communication equipment manufacturers were illegally consulting each other prior to the bid. He filed a complaint to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department; however, it wasn't accepted with the reason that "the stature of limitations has passed."
"The police have a very close relationship with companies, and at the same time, they are against the labor or civil rights movement. There is no reaction from the mass media even after he had sent material to them."
His protest action in front of the gate is 30 minutes long every day. These days, it is very cold early in the morning, close to near freezing temperatures. His cold fingers press against the disposable heating pads in his pockets for warmth.
Although Oki Electric denied it, Tanaka said that when the company was negotiating with the laid off workers, the workers also brought his case in front of Oki Electric . The companies reconciliation for his struggles was a sum of money. However, Tanaka said he was determined from the beginning not to compromise with money.
"My task in this struggle is to make the company admit their wrong doings, by giving me my previous job back. not by money.
I will continue to come back here in front of the gate as long as my body permits."
Despite the loss of his cases against Oki, his will to fight continues.