[2] When the organization was crushed in a government crackdown in the spring of 1928, it had 11 regional councils, 82 affiliated unions and around 23,000 members.
[3] Hyōgikai was founded as a continuation of the Reform Alliance, a group of 25 trade unions which merged out of the Eastern Local Council (a body that had separated itself from the Eastern Federation of the Sodomei trade union centre, but retained a direct affiliation to Sodomei.
In response Hyōgikai also pulled out of the party-building process the following day, in order not to obstruct the creation of a broad-based proletarian party.
Around the country, which suffered from economic crisis at the time, Hyōgikai was busy forming labour councils together with other trade unions at major factories.
An effort to rebuild the organization was initiated, but Hyōgikai and the Labour-Farmer Party were banned by the Home Ministry on April 11, 1928, accused of being linked to the communists.
Communist trade unionists then changed tactics, concentrating on building local union federations.