Mandatory Bargaining with a Minority Union? The Law of Collective Bargaining in Japan & the US

This event was recorded on March 7, 2023.

A US-Japan Short Takes

This event is co-sponsored by the APEC Study Center at Columbia University

About the event

Labor unions have recently reappeared in news headlines in Japan and the US as both countries recognize a need to improve employee wages, benefits, and working conditions. However, there is a striking fundamental difference between the two countries. US law requires a majority of employees to support union representation before a company is required to negotiate with the union. That results in high-profile unionization campaigns like those taking place at Amazon warehouses and Starbucks stores. By contrast, employers in Japan must bargain in good faith with minority unions, sometimes more than one at a workplace. How does this affect unionization and collective bargaining, and what are the implications for the future of labor markets in Japan and the US? Two leading experts on labor law, Professor Hiroya Nakakubo of Hitotsubashi University and Professor Alan Hyde of Rutgers Law School, will join NYU Law Adjunct Professor Bruce Aronson in discussion.

About the speakers

Hiroya Nakakubo is a professor of law at Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of Law in Tokyo. He is a member of Japan’s Labor Policy Council and Central Minimum Wage Council, and a former member of the Central Labor Relations Commission. Professor Nakakubo has written widely about both Japan and the US in the field of labor and employment law. His works in Japanese include two well-known books, “U.S. Labor and Employment Law” (2nd ed. 2010) and “The World of Labor Law” (co-authored with Susumu Noda, 13th ed. 2019). He has also written many articles in English on topics including equal employment opportunity in Japan, such as “Glass Ceiling or Iron Weight?: Challenges for Female Employees on Their Path to Becoming Managers and Executives in Japan. He also translated Lilly Ledbetter’s memoir, Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond (2012), into Japanese. Prior to joining Hitotsubashi, Professor Nakakubo taught at Fukuoka University, Chiba University, and Kyushu University. He holds an LL.B. degree from the University of Tokyo and LL.M. from Harvard Law School.

Alan Hyde is a professor of law and Sidney Reitman Scholar at Rutgers Law School. He is an expert in labor, employment, immigration law, global labor rights, and the economics of labor mobility. He is the author of Working in Silicon Valley (2003) and Bodies of Law (1997). He has written about the rights, powers, and experience of US employee caucuses and unions representing less than a majority. Before coming to Rutgers, he was an instructor at NYU School of Law and represented the National Labor Relations Board in federal courts of appeals. He also is a member of the American Law Institute and consultant to their Restatement of Employment Law. He earned his A.B. from Stanford and his J.D. from Yale.

About the moderator

Bruce Aronson is senior advisor to the Japan Center of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute and an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law. He has been a tenured professor of law at universities in the United States (Creighton University) and Japan (Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo). Before beginning his academic career, he served as a corporate partner at the law firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP in New York. He also served as an independent director at Eisai Co., Ltd., a listed Japanese pharmaceutical company. Professor Aronson twice received Fulbright grants to be a senior research scholar at the University of Tokyo and at Waseda University, and was a visiting scholar at the Bank of Japan. His main area of research is comparative corporate governance with a focus on Japan and Asia. Publications include a textbook, Corporate Governance in Asia: A Comparative Approach (with J. Kim, Cambridge University Press, 2019).