Two years after Keidanren, under Chairman Okuda, boasted of corporations’ great efforts in reviving the Japanese economy, the 2008 financial crisis led to mass layoffs of temp workers.

Keidanren’s building in Otemachi, Chiyoda City, Tokyo. Photo by Makoto Watanabe.

Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Hiroshi Okuda was full of confidence in Keidanren’s achievements as he entered his final year as chairman of the federation in 2006.

Since Okuda assumed his post in 2003, Keidanren had rated the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) highly in its political party evaluations and had encouraged member companies to donate to the LDP. Toyota itself took the lead: In 2004, Toyota topped the list of LDP corporate donors, giving 64.4 million yen. That year, regulations were loosened to allow temp workers to fill manufacturing jobs.

In a 2006 report by Keidanren’s Committee on Management and Labor Policy titled “Managers, Be Strong and True,” Okuda wrote the following self-congratulatory phrases.

“The bubble economy and its collapse caused extremely serious damage, and the subsequent slump was bound to last for a while. I take pride in the fact that the Japanese economy has recovered to the extent it has today not only thanks to government efforts to implement structural reforms, but, above all, because of our efforts in the private sector.”

What kind of efforts had the corporations made? Okuda wrote that both managers and employees had “gritted their teeth.”

“It would not be an exaggeration to say that Japan’s economy was revived thanks to the managers and employees who gritted their teeth despite strict downsizing and business restructuring during the difficult period known as ‘the lost decade’ — employees worked hard, and management continued to invest in research and development and human resource development for the future,” he wrote.

“Near Toyota’s home turf…”

However, from 2008 to 2009, the situation changed drastically with the outbreak of the 2008 financial crisis. Companies tried to endure the tough times by laying off temporary workers, and the streets were filled with people who had lost their jobs. An industry group comprised of temp agencies and related companies estimated that 400,000 temporary and contract workers had lost their jobs.

At the time, I interviewed temp workers who had been laid off in Nagoya City. One was a middle-aged man who had made friends with someone in the same situation; together, they lived out of internet cafes and saunas as they searched for work. They had used a food distribution service at a park, but one day he suddenly became separated from his friend. “Where did he go?” he said, looking worried.

At that time, people who had lost their jobs flocked to Nagoya from all over the country. “Why Nagoya?” I once asked. I was told, “I thought there might be work near Toyota’s home turf.”

Top 50 companies by donations to the National Political Association (recipient of donations for the LDP) in 2008

	Company name	Total(JPY)
1	TOYOTA MOTOR	64,400,000
2	Canon	50,000,000
3	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries	40,000,000
4	TOSHIBA	38,500,000
5	Hitachi	38,500,000
6	Panasonic	38,500,000
7	Sumitomo Chemical Company	36,000,000
8	Sumitomo Corporation	33,000,000
9	MITSUI & CO.	33,000,000
10	Mitsubishi Corporation	33,000,000
11	Honda Motor	31,000,000
12	Nippon Steel Corporation	30,000,000
13	JFE Steel Corporation	30,000,000
14	Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha	30,000,000
15	Nomura Holdings	28,000,000
16	Takeda Pharmaceutical Company	26,370,000
17	Mitsubishi Electric	25,200,000
18	Sony	25,000,000
19	Daiwa Securities Group	25,000,000
20	ITOCHU Corporation	25,000,000
21	Nissan Motor	24,000,000
22	MAZDA	22,000,000
23	Marubeni Corporation	20,000,000
24	Daihatsu Motor	19,100,000
25	Shimizu Corporation	18,800,000
26	Kajima Corporation	18,260,000
27	Asahi Kasei Corporation	18,000,000
28	NEC Corporation	18,000,000
29	Fujitsu Limited	18,000,000
30	TAISEI CORPORATION	17,960,000
31	Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance	17,640,000
32	Hino Motors	17,600,000
33	ISUZU MOTORS LIMITED	17,200,000
34	Nippon Life Insurance Company	16,960,000
35	SUZUKI MOTOR	16,600,000
36	IHI Corporation	16,000,000
37	Resonac Corporation	16,000,000
38	SUBARU CORPORATION	15,800,000
39	OBAYASHI CORPORATION	15,750,000
40	TAKENAKA CORPORATION	15,750,000
41	Mitsui Fudosan Co.	15,000,000
42	Toray Industries	15,000,000
43	Ajinomoto	15,000,000
44	Sumitomo Metal Industries	15,000,000
45	Kobe Steel	15,000,000
46	TOENEC CORPORATION	14,000,000
47	KANDENKO	13,800,000
48	TOPPAN	13,400,000
49	Oji Paper	13,000,000
50	KINDEN CORPORATION	13,000,000

Note: Amounts do not include contributions by group companies or subsidiaries

(Originally published on October 3, 2024.)

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