Doro-Chiba Anti-War Statement
Victory for the 2026 Anti-War Spring Labor Struggle Strike to Block the March Timetable Revision
March14, 2026
National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba (Doro-Chiba)
We thoroughly denounce the brutal invasion of Iran by the United States and Israel. Through atrocities such as bombing of a girls’ elementary school and the massacring children, they have already slaughtered over 1,000 Iranian working people and they continue to kill them to this day. The US president Donald Trump does not even attempt to cover up this attack as a “legitimate act in accordance with international law.” True to his own words, “I don’t need international law,” he has revealed the true face of imperialism and is forcibly carrying out one military invasion after another. Just like the invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of the presidential couple at the beginning of this year, this is being waged as a war of aggression against China, a world war, with its primary focus on encircling China economically, politically, and militarily. Trump is trying to throw the world into chaos, starting with the Middle East, dragging everything into war and forcing the world to bow down before American “power.”
The Takaichi administration, which won a “landslide victory” in the House of Representatives general election, has become completely aligned with Trump, acting in lockstep with him. In fact, Sanae Takaichi has not criticized a single word regarding the unilateral invasions launched by the United States and Israel, both of which are nuclear-armed. On the contrary, she has stated that “Iran’s possession of nuclear weapons is unacceptable” and condemned Iran’s counterattacks. Furthermore, she is pushing forward with constitutional revision, a massive military buildup, the enactment of the Anti-Espionage Law, and a wartime economic development, and is attempting to take on the war of aggression against China as “Japan’s own war.” The Japan-US summit scheduled for March 19 is poised to become a turning point, moving beyond previous levels of military expansion and resulting in an agreement to all resources into war.
At the same time, class war at home is being waged alongside wars of aggression abroad. This is a historic shift from the postwar legislation aimed at fundamentally denying and eradicating labor unions. It is an attack designed to dismantle workers’ rights to a state prior to the Labor Standards Act and to channel “all national resources, including the labor force, into the war effort.” Here, the will of the enemy class that led to the Division and Privatization of the Japanese National Railways (JNR), persists in a new form as an attack of a different dimension. As railway workers, and as a labor union that has fought through against the Division and Privatization of the JNR, we will resolutely confront this attack as well.
A series of unbelievable major accidents has been occurring at the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Yet, the JR East is pushing ahead with further outsourcing of railway operations, abolishing retirement allowances and regular pay raises, dismantling even the concept of “workplace” as used in the Labor Standard Act*[i], closing rural lines, and thoroughly dismantling labor unions to replace them with corporate friends’ associations (= Seven years ago, the majority labor union at JR East disappeared, and in its place, a social organization for employees was established. The company is now cultivating this as a management partner, and is even aiming to grant it the same legal status as a labor union in the future). This is how the JR East is pushing this attack. To fight back this assault, we are preparing for three waves of struggle to fight starting today and leading up to April 1.
Intense inflation during wartime continues to escalate, and more than 30 years of neoliberal attacks have brought about a catastrophic collapse of society. Amid this, the Takashi administration is pushing ahead with war, even at the cost of destroying people’s livelihoods. Contradictions are already erupting everywhere, and the pent-up anger is finally on the verge of exploding.
We cannot allow the railroads to be used for the purposes of war. Moreover, American imperialism itself is ruthlessly and violently destroying the “international order,” and a third world war is on the verge of becoming a reality. In this situation, working people around the world are rising up to fight. To prevent this war, we stand in solidarity with the working people of Iran, who are currently under attack; the Palestinian people, who continue their unyielding resistance; and the people of Asia and the world who suffer under oppression. We rise up together in the struggle against war.
Today, we are taking on a strike, and we call on workers across the country to rise up in the fight to denounce the war of aggression against Iran, to prevent the war of aggression against China and a world war, and overthrow the Takaichi administration.
[i] In the Labor Standard Act, “workplace” means a place where the employees there work together in the same environment and facility, and therefore it is a unit of negotiation for the conditions.
For example:
Article 38-2(1) If a worker engages in work outside of the workplace during all or part of their working hours and it is difficult to calculate working hours, . . . the worker is deemed to have worked for the number of hours that, pursuant to the provisions of Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare . . ..
(2)In a case as referred to in the proviso of the preceding paragraph, if the employer has concluded a written agreement concerning the work in question with the labor union that has been organized by a majority of the workers at that workplace, if there is one, or with a person representing a majority of the workers at that workplace, if there is no such union, the number of hours specified in that agreement is used as the number of hours that would normally be necessary to carry out the work referred to in the proviso to that paragraph.
