[2] Initially under the influence of the JCP, in 1950 Nikkyōso joined the nationwide Sōhyō labor confederation and thereafter became more closely affiliated with the Japan Socialist Party (JSP).

[2] From the earliest days of its foundation, Nikkyōso took an extremely militant line against a series of conservative governments in Japan, leading to considerable antagonism between the union and the Ministry of Education.

[3] In his book The Enigma of Japanese Power, Karel van Wolferen describes the clashes between conservative forces and Nikkyōso during this period, including Ministers of Education who had previously served in the "Thought Police" of the 1930s using thugs to systematically attack union members, break up union meetings, and eliminate local elected boards of education.

[4] In the latter half of the 1950s, however, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi made smashing Nikkyōso one of his personal missions.

Nikkyōso had staunchly opposed many of the proposed reforms by the Ministry, but it failed to forestall changes in certification and teacher training that it had viewed as an existential threat to its own survival.