The Yūaikai or the "Friendly Society" was a pre-war Japanese trade union. It was the only large trade union that existed in Japan during the early 1910s.
The Yūaikai was established in 1912 by Suzuki Bunji.[1] It drew together industrial workers from Osaka and Tokyo during Japan's economic boom during World War I, and flourished from 1912 to 1918.[2] It was the only large trade union to exist in Japan during this time period. The Yūaikai also had a women's organization affiliated with them, the first of its kind. However, the organization only persuaded a few thousand women to join unions, compared to the 500,000 membership of the main group.
The Yūaikai was renamed the in 1921. The Sōdōmei had a more radical political agenda, and was generally seen as more militant than the original group. It was dissolved in 1940, when the Japanese government outlawed labor unions.