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President of UNI Asia & Pacific, Tomoyasu Kato, identified the current situation in Europe as similar to the experiences of Japan which has endured a long-running economic downturn following the bursting of the bubble economy. Kato was speaking at the UNI Management Committee Meeting held in Nyon, Switzerland on May 8 2012.



Giving an excellent analysis of Japan’s recession and current economic situation by approaching Japan’s GDP, financial markets, unemployment rates, and their impact on society, Kato highlighted that average life expectancy in Japan has gone against the expected trends in times of economic crisis and increased from 78.8 years to 83 years despite He also noted that Japan’s current account surplus in 2010 stood at US$196 billion, in stark contrast to the deficit of the United States.



In his speech, Kato drove home the importance of labour unions as he notes how successful organization, a unified labour front, board-based, global joint actions and the enhancement of industry-based organization in cooperation with international organizations, has helped Japan deal with the economic recession.



He says, “In the face of a long-running economic downturn, I believe that the challenges we have faced, and still face, will be similar to challenges faced in other countries, regardless of local circumstances. Strength is made up of action and policy, political power and international cooperation. It is to be hoped that the experiences of Japan can serve as a useful reference for other countries. Let us all advance together in unity.”



Philip Jennings, General Secretary of UNI Global Union, said that, “the leaders of labour unions in the countries of Europe and North America should learn from the experiences of Japan in the 1990s as a means of considering what they should do if their own countries fall into a similar situation.”



The transcription of Kato’s presentation titled “Lost Two Decades：The Experience of Japan” can be found here.