Bulletin 26Bulletin No. 26, October 2019

October, 2019

Graphical & Packaging

No.

Japanese affiliates – UNI Graphical & Packaging
Federation of Printing Information Media Workers
Unions (INSATSU ROREN)

All Printing Bureau Labour Union (ZENINSATSU)

Abbreviation
Foundation dateFounding members
President
Current membership

Abbreviation
Foundation dateFounding members
President
Current membership

PIMW
25th August 1989
46 organizations, 20,785 members
Mr. Hisatsune Sato
37 organizations, 20,324 members(as of July 2019)

PLU
1st April 1947
8,000 members
Mr. Takashi Umehara
5,082 members(as of 1st April 2019)

Main Principles

Main Principles• To pursue the happiness of working people while striving
for the maintenance and improvement of our economic,social, and political status based on a free and democraticlabor movement and with pride and responsibility asJapanese printing information media industry workers.
• To maintain and improve working conditions throughrobust solidarity while protecting fundamental humanrights, freedom, and peace based on mutual trust.
• To contribute to enhancing the soundness of business
management and the democratic development of theprinting information media industry based on themobilization of the collective opinion and wisdom of
the members, the refining of technical skills, and thedevelopment of character.
• To work for the development of a sound and robust
organization and unification of the workers’ front of
the printing information media industry workers while
excluding all forms of coercive interference in tradeunions affairs and holding fast to the democratic
management of the organization.
• To realize a welfare state with an abundant sense ofhumanity while holding fast to parliamentary democracy.
• To build international peace with freedom and democracy,we resolve to be aware of and strengthen our solidarity
toward the role we should perform.

• To establish autonomy for trade unions, unite all G&Pworkers, improve working conditions and social status
and expand rights for members while building a strong
collaborative relationship.
• To build a labor-management relationship based onsolid equality, that focuses on ensuring fundamental
rights for workers, facilitating future growth in theprinting bureau business.
• To create a culture for workers in which labor and humanrights are highly respected.
• To pursue permanent peace and global solidarity bycollaborating with all citizens with a common belief
based on liberty, togetherness and democracy.

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Japanese affiliates - UNI Graphical & Packaging

Dai Nippon Printing Workers Union (DNPWU)

Japan Federation of Newspaper Worker’s Unions(SHIMBUN ROREN)

Abbreviation
Foundation dateFounding members
President
Current membership

Abbreviation
Foundation dateFounding members
President
Current membership

DNPWU
23rd October 1945
about 1,600 members
Naoyuki Beppu
7,181 members (as of 1st April 2019)

Main Principles

Main Principles• Labour and management collaboration based on mutual
understanding and trust• Contributions to society• Autonomous and democratic operation• Creative activity with voices from workplaces as a startingpoint• To secure the three fundamental labor rights throughbuilding a spirit of unity among all newspaper unions
and to fight for a better life and a higher political andsocial status.
• To protect the freedom of speech, to accomplish thedemocratic revolution, to respect Japanese culture andto rebuild the nation as a free and independent country,with the recognition that these are all part of newspapers’social mission.
• To respect democracy and autonomy for our affiliates’
activities by rejecting oppression or interference frompolitical parties, government and capitalists.
• To fight against unjust competition among newspaper
companies which leads to exploitation of newspaper
workers. To support liberty and fairness in newspaper
reporting activities, irrespective of their region or scale,and to secure all worker’s fundamental rights.
• To collaborate with other industries in order to establish
a high quality of life and political status for all workers,and unite in a democratic labor front.
• To promote participation and unity among all democratic
industrial federations around the world with an aim toestablish world peace.

ZENINSATSU, INSATSU ROREN, DNPWU, SHIMBUN ROREN
are affiliated with UNI G&P. Mr. Takashi Umehara, Presidentof ZENINSATSU, serves as Vice President of UNI Apro G&P,and Mr. Hisatsune Sato, President of INSATSU ROREN,
serves as a member of UNI Apro G&P, both contributing
to UNI G&P activities.

Regular information exchange (National Mint Osaka Plant, April 2019)

Fraternal organizations
UNI-LCJ P&G meetings are held to share and exchangeinformation and experiences on a regular basis in Japan,
as well as to deepen cooperation with other fraternalorganizations such as the Graphical Sector of the JapaneseFederation of Textile, Chemical, Food, Commercial, Serviceand General Workers’ Unions (UA ZENSEN) and All Mint
Bureau Workers’ Union (ZENZOHEI).
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SHIMBUN ROREN
30th June 1950
14 organizations, 10,800 members
Mr. Akira Minami
86 organizations,19,842 members(of which 1,500 are newspaper workers)Bulletin No. 26, October 2019

The Future World of Work and Workstyle Reform
With the progress of digitalization associated with technological changes such as IoT and Artificial Intelligence,
we are seeing rapid and drastic changes in the industrial
structure and our workstyles. As a positive aspect, thesechanges enable companies to provide more efficient
operations and services by utilizing big data and othermeasures. It is also expected that the spread of telecommuting and other technologies will enable workers torealize diverse workstyles such as working at home inspite of disabilities, childcare, and nursing care. On theother hand, as a negative aspect, digitalization makes it
easier to share and access workers’ or personal information, and devising ways to protect privacy remains anissue to be solved. In addition, while the number of jobs
which can be replaced by AI or robots are increasing, weare asked what are the jobs that humans should do. We
need to support reskilling and retraining workers in orderto respond to rapid changes for a smooth transition.
Compared to Europe and the US, in Japan, both labourand management tend to consider digitalization to be apositive change as a key to solve urgent matters such as
the aging society with a declining birth rate and labour
shortage.
One of the critical government policies for dealing withthese issues is “Workstyle Reform”. In the background,as I mentioned earlier, we are facing a serious labour
shortage associated with population decrease. In orderto solve the labour shortage, we need to increase theworkforce, raise the birth rate, and improve labour
productivity. The government’s “Workstyle Reform” is apolicy to realize these solutions. The so-called “WorkstyleReform Bills” proposed by the “Meetings on Promotion
to Realize Workstyle Reform” were passed and enacted
in June 2018 and executed in April 2019. The three pillarsof these bills are “shortening long working hours”,“eliminating disparities between regular and nonregularworkers” and “realizing diverse workstyles”. This legislation
realizes some points demanded by JTUC-RENGO, such as
an introduction of an upper-limit regulation on overtime
work with penalties, the abolishment of suspension measuresagainst an additional wage rate for overtime work over
60 hours in SMEs, and legislation for equal pay for equal
work toward eliminating irrational disparities between
employment forms. RENGO highly evaluated these points
but expressed regret regarding the fact that the “high-levelprofessional system”, which may promote long working
hours instead of applying the regulations for working
hours set forth in the Labour Standards Law, was newly
established without being deleted from the bills.

that of these, 54.4% are offices with 3 people or less.
Publication and commercial printing tend to be on thedecline in the printing industry, and we are increasingly
seeing a replacement of publication printing by digitalcomics on cell phones and e-books, and in commercial
printing, an increase in advertisements and sales promotion
via the internet and digital signage. IC cards and e-businessjeopardize securities printing and in-office printing, people
being inclined to rely on websites and electronic payment.
On the other side, in the field of living environments, apackage-printing market with the food sector as its core
is expanding, including functional packaging materials
for medical items and other environmentally friendly
packaging materials. Furthermore, in the field of construction
materials, we maintain stable demands for value-added
goods such as wallpaper that responds to the environment,
and in the industrial materials field, the demand for
antireflective films and solar cell back sheets are growing.
In the printing market since 2000, a digital printing
market has been growing. Especially, data printing services, promotional materials, and direct mail are growthfields, and the market has been turning into a Print OnDemand market where printed materials are produced
when necessary.
While the printing industry is moving toward highfunctionalization, advancement, and digitalization fromthe traditional printing market, changes are required inworking environments. It is crucial to build production
systems according to the market change from paper toelectronic media and to respond to the Print On-Demandfunction, to highly functionalize, to build technologies
and knowhow for advancement, and to take measuresfor SMEs against digitalization.
We industrial unions therefore have to respond tochanges in working environments according to the progressof digitalization from the workers’ point of view. It is vitalto build “healthy labour-management relations”, to “nurture
human resources”, to promote “diversified workstyles”,
and to take “measures for SMEs” as a respond to thesechanges. We will play a role as an industrial union in orderto respond to these changes in the working environment
as well as seek realization of industrial policies anddevelopment of the printing industry in cooperation withindustrial groups, related organizations and recommendedmembers, developing movements toward the future of
the printing industry.

The future of the printing industry

The latest research by the Japan Newspaper Publishers &Editors Association shows that newspapers in Japan havea circulation of 39,901,576 as of October 2018. Home
delivery is widespread and the number of subscriptions

In the printing industry, SMEs with less than 100 employees account for 98.3% of the industry and statistics show

The current situation and future of thenewspaper industry in Japan

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Active Participation to UNI / UNI Apro G & P activities

UNI G & P Executive Committee Meeting(Stockholm, Sweden, June 2017)

UNI Apro G&P Sector Conference (Fukushima, September 2017)

UNI Apro G&P Committee Meeting (KualaLumpur, Malaysia, October 2018)

Dialogue with Toppan Management at The
7th UNI Apro East Asia Trade Union Forum(Tokyo, October 2018)“Zeninsatsu contribution tounite Indian security pressworkers” UNI G&P seminarfor Indian affiliated unions(Mumbai, India, May 2019)

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per household is 0.70 copies. However, we are seeing asituation where subscriptions are on the decline and there
is no sign of the tide turning, partly because digital news
media such as SNSs are increasing and the trend awayfrom reading newspapers is accelerating, and partly due
to the aging of readers and a decrease in young readers
who prefer not to read newspapers. In the same research
conducted in October 2008, the circulation was 51,491,409
and the number of subscriptions per household was 0.98.
The figure has plummeted in the last 10 years and theresearch also shows that sales revenue fell below 1 trillion
yen for the first time in financial results in fiscal year 2017.
Under these circumstances, managements have spun
off their printing sectors into separate companies for thepurpose of cutting labour costs. In many cases, workers
directly employed by the separate companies are notallowed to join the labour unions of their headquarters.
These workers are therefore not organized, leading todeterioration in labour conditions for newspaper printing
workers, which is becoming an urgent matter that must
be addressed.
On the other hand, each newspaper company is exploring
services that utilize their contents and is seeking a new
growth strategy that responds to digitalization. Online
users are on the rise and we are seeing trends of efforts
to increase revenue through digital advertising and contents
delivery, including an expansion of video/advertisement
distribution services. However, digital news services arebecoming increasingly dependent on platformers such as“YAHOO”, and thus the Japan Federation of Newspaper
Worker’s Unions is studying measures to realign the natureof the relationship with platformers.
86 labour unions are affiliated with Japan Federationof Newspaper Worker’s Unions, accounting for about 80%
of all the newspaper companies nationwide, including
national, block, local and regional newspapers, industrial
journals, business and trade papers, and news agencies.
Some unions are organized through individual membership,
but most of them are federations of enterprise-based
unions. Occupations of the members are various, fromreporters, editors, and producers, to workers in sales,
advertisement or printing divisions, and these unions are
not occupation-based unions as they are in other countries.
The total membership is about 20,000. We work on awide variety of activities such as protection of employment,
improvement of labour conditions, advocacy of workers’
rights, settlement of labour conflicts, enhancement ofwelfare programs, strengthening of journalism, freedomof speech and the press, and the maintenance/developmentof peace and democracy. Recently, journalists, mainly
female reporters, have been increasingly targeted for attack
and we are building a rescue network to tackle thesecases.

The current situation and future ofSecurity Printing in JapanThe current situation and future of Security Printing canhardly be discussed without referring to the relationshipwith the rapid development of digital technologies.

Bulletin No. 26, October 2019

The mission of Security Printing is “to avoid counterfeit”
and for that purpose, various kinds of anti-counterfeit
technologies have been adopted for banknotes and securities
to protect their value. Counterfeiting was mainly perpetrated
by organized criminals before the era of the rapid development
of digital technology. These days, however, even thegeneral public can maliciously counterfeit with advanced
and diffuse digital technologies. Competing with thissituation, we currently see the world trend of introducing
devices such as special ink with luminescent materials andmetal foil such as holograms into security printed matter,
which enable us to identify and authenticate with our
five senses, such as eyesight.
In Japan, anti-counterfeit technologies such as holograms
and pearl ink are adopted for banknotes and other printed
matter, and the further improvement of forgery resistanceis anticipated with the cutting-edge hologram technology
and others competing with the development of digitaltechnologies.
Despite the necessity of introducing the latest technologies,“Security Design” equipped with design and functionality
has been adopted for security printed matter and its
elaborate lines and microscopic structure patterns, etc.
was one of the most effective anti-counterfeit technologies.
However, we are seeing an increase in counterfeits using
highly functional digital printing technologies becoming
increasingly widespread these days. Therefore, SecureElements are now being developed with new functions
which maintain the conventional design but also havelatent patterns, or invisible information, among the visiblepatterns, these being authenticated with a simple tool.
Digital technologies are evolving constantly. It is crucial
to advance technologies from various perspectives, suchas adopting cutting-edge technologies enabling visual
identification as well as functionalizing Security Design
to fight against the counterfeiting of security printed
matter.
Needless to say, it is an extremely important matter forthe security printing industry to take necessary measuresagainst the trend of technological innovation, which is
drastically changing industrial structure itself, including,for example, ensuring digital security without relying onprinting, rather than printing on paper or plastics as atool for ensuring desired security.

Regular Information exchange (National Printing Bureau Odawara
Plant, April 2019)

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What is UNI-LCJapan? A Domestic Consultation and Coordination Body

UNI-LCJapan (UNI Liaison Council Japan) is the domestic
council where UNI affiliates in Japan discuss their involvement in UNI activities and harmonize their opinions andpositions. In conjunction with UNI consolidation, UNILCJapan was formed in January 2000 and has been expanding its membership with determined commitment to organizing. As of February 2019, UNI-LCJapan consists of 14
affiliated unions with a total of 1,022,700 members andcarries out activities in close cooperation with UNI / UNIApro.
A large number of Japanese affiliates hold key positions
in UNI/UNI Apro. Many of them are involved in UNI decision-

making bodies, and they are particularly responsible forpromoting UNI activities in the Asia-Pacific region. Since
2000, many overseas projects have been run by UNI-LCJapan.
Seminars have been conducted in various other countries
in close cooperation with their national liaison councils andUNI-LCJapan.
UNI-LCJ is a coordinating body of Japanese affiliates insix sectors including Commerce, Finance, Graphical, ICTS,Media and Post & Logistics, and other new areas such as
Athletes and Care.
UNI-LCJ Graphical & Packaging, with 15,000 members
from three affiliates, is one of the growing sectors in Japan.

UNI Liaison Council Japan (UNI-LCJapan)

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Zendentsu Kaikan 6F, 3-6 Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0062 Japan
Tel: +81-3-3251-3374 FAX: +81-3-3257-0839 E-mail: lcjapan @ vesta.dti.ne.jp
http://blogs.uniglobalunion.org/japan/