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Japanese unions are to launch a task force to curb the private equity funds circling their companies.

This was a key outcome of the first union seminar on private equity ever held in Japan, which was attended by more than 100 people.

Following moves by the government to make it easier for foreign interests to buy Japanese companies, affiliates in Japan are concerned at the impact of private equity buyouts on employment.

The aim is to oppose funds busing up companies and making workers redundant.

In Europe and the USA private equity groups are buying major companies, helped by tax incentives and low interest rates and fuelled by pension funds and banks looking for higher returns on their capital. Buyouts bring in huge fees for the funds and very often the debt of the buyout is loaded onto the victim companies.

“This is a call to action,” UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings told Reuters during the seminar in Tokyo. He called private equity groups “a financial virus” and the “new rocket fuel of globalisation”.

Backing for the campaign - launched by UNI and the IUF - is also coming from the trade union centre Rengo.

UNI has 14 affiliates in Japan with almost one million members.

Earlier this week a UNI team met the Japanese Labour Minister and expressed their concerns to him at the potential impact of private equity buy-outs on employment and working conditions.