A 24-hour strike commenced Friday as port workers throughout the country protested moves to alter their port practices under pressure from the United States, freezing cargo-handling at several dozen ports.
The 50,000-strong National Council of Dockworkers Unions of Japan and the Japan Confederation of Port and Transport Workers Unions, which has 5,000 members, make up nearly half of the 100,000 longshoremen in the country. Officials of the unions said ports including Yokohama, Kobe, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka's Hakata have been hit by the strike.
The action comes in the wake of an agreement struck in October between the port industry and the Transport Ministry for streamlining the "prior consultation system" that is a major focus of bilateral frictions with the U.S.
The two labor groups also staged a one-day strike in March, in protest of the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission, which imposed fines on three Japanese shipping companies. The fines went uncollected after the agreement was made in October.