Background
Bunji Suzuki was born in 1885 in Miyagi Prefecture. He was a son of a sake maker.
Bunji Suzuki was born in 1885 in Miyagi Prefecture. He was a son of a sake maker.
In spite of financial difficulties, he succeeded in graduating from the political course of Tokyo Imperial University.
After working for a printing company called Shueisha and the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, in 1911 he became secretary of the Unitarian Church in Japan. In the factory area near Mita in Tokyo, he began devoting his time to social education for the workers.
In 1912 he and a group of associates, fifteen persons in all, formed a labor organization called the Yuaikai, which advocated cooperation between labor and management. It rapidly grew in size until it incorporated a number of labor unions throughout the country. In 1921 the name was changed to Nihon Rodo Sodomei (Japan General Labor Federation). Suzuki headed the organization until 1930, advocating social reformism of a Christian nature and opposing communist principles. During this period, he took part in the formation of the Shakai Minshuto (Social Popular Party) in 1926 and, in the first universal suffrage election in 1928, he was elected to the Lower House of the Diet.
As representative of the Yiiaikai, he attended the general convention of the American Federation of Labor and four times went abroad to participate in international labor meetings. In the first general election after the end of the Pacific War, he ran as a candidate on the Socialist Party ticket, but collapsed while on a campaign tour to Sendai.
While a student, he joined the Hongo Church of the well- known educator and Christian leader Ebina Danjo, and under the influence of the political thinkers Yoshino Sakuzo and Abe Isoo developed a deep interest in social problems.
