Time to listen to the voices of the 'precariat'

There is something tender and caring in the way Shuhei Fujisawa (1927-1997) depicts working-class people of no social consequence in his novels set in old Edo (present-day Tokyo). I believe Fujisawa identified himself with them. A haiku he wrote in his young days goes: "May Day is over/ The poor remain poor." He was undergoing a long recuperation from tuberculosis, and perhaps this poem was a projection of his own plight.

It may also have been his humble protest against society that was being overrun by the theory of capitalism. Around the same time, he also wrote this haiku: "Paulownia flowers are blooming/ Talk is rife/ Of villagers selling their paddies." I presume the setting of this haiku was his native Yamagata Prefecture.

Both poems are poignant portrayals of people who lived in the shadows of the nation's post-World War II economic miracle.

Thursday was May Day, and labor union rallies were held around the nation. The nature of May Day events has changed in recent years, however, with unions in different regions holding their rallies on different days. Also, solidarity is growing beyond established unions and among low-income individuals who have been reduced to struggling for survival.

These non-regular workers are collectively called the "precariat" now instead of "proletariat."

The word comes from an Italian word meaning "precarious." Some of these people earn too little to be financially self-sufficient. They are holding rallies around the nation, demanding that their right to survival be honored.

Back in the early seventh century, Prince Shotoku warned in his so-called 17-Article Constitution: "A rich man's petition is like a stone cast in water, but a poor man's petition is like water splashed on a stone." What he meant was that a wealthy person's complaint will be accepted, but a poor person's complaint is readily rebuffed. This seems to still hold today.

The voices of workers, which used to tend not to reach the ears of politicians, are now being raised collectively in many ways. The political and business communities must hear them sincerely, not rebuff them.

After May Day comes Constitution Day, which falls on Saturday this year. Social disparity is widening, and poverty is spreading. Article 25 of the Japanese Constitution provides: "All people shall have the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living." We must not let the spirit of this article wither.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 2(IHT/Asahi: May 3,2008)