Shunto
In Japan, the annual collective bargaining negotiations between employers and trade unions for the business year beginning in April are called shuntō ( Japanese 春 闘 , dt. "Spring Offensive") . Although the trade union federations ( Rengō , Zenrōren ) set national and industry-wide tariff targets and use the Shuntō also for nationwide campaigns and the employers' association Nikkeiren (today: Nippon Keidanren ) makes national specifications; however, the negotiations take place at company level, with the negotiation results in large companies mostly serving as a guide. Often the unions put certain goals in the foreground: spring wage offensive, spring working time offensive, in recent years (Rengō) “spring fight for better living conditions” ( 春季 生活 闘 争 , shunki seikatsu tōsō ).
In the late 1940s , the shunto emerged as a coordinated attempt by corporate unions in large industrial companies to improve working conditions. In the 1950s , the Shuntō developed from the iron and steel industry - the trade union federation Tekkōrōren organized an industry-wide spring offensive for the first time in 1954 - for the nationwide campaign of the trade union associations. Gradually, interest groups in small and medium-sized companies, service companies and in the public sector followed.