FWC members,

Join the May Day festivities at Hibiya Park on Friday, May 1, starting at 9:30 a.m.  Thousands of unionists attend this event, so be sure to meet up with the Nambu crowd at the location below.

Some historical notes: 

1886: First strike in Japan, conducted by women working in a textile factory in Kofu. The first union wasn’t formed until 1897, and women didn’t even have the vote – nonetheless, they won concessions from the factory owners.

1920 : Japan’s first May Day, held in Ueno Park, attended by 10,000 people.
 
1952:  Stronger unions meet with police oppression; two people killed in an incident known as “Bloody May Day”. 
Read more at http://nugwnambu.org/pages/headlines/maydayorigen.htm

These days, the police are just there to direct traffic, while the oppression takes the form of working-poor wages, jobs with no security, holes in the social safety net, and the myriad other problems we face at work every day.

The May Day assembly is held in the Open Air Concert Hall (Yagai Ongaku-do) in Hibiya Park (see map attached.) We
meet in the area behind the hall, labelled “Seagull Area (Local Forest)” -  Japanese name Kamome-hiroba,
Kyodo-no-mori.

http://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/english/park/detail_02.html