Blue collar workers (Nikutai-rōdō-sha (肉体労働者)) in Japan encompass many different types of manual labor jobs, including factory work, construction, and agriculture.
[1] The blue-collar class includes regular, non-regular, and part-time workers, as well as a large number of foreign laborers, all with varying work schedules and employment benefits.
Most Japanese people prior to the Meiji Restoration worked in the agriculture industry (approximately 70-80 percent), and although some examples of organized production were present in Japanese communities, the lack of modern technology and capital prevented industrial factory work from emerging on a large scale.
Support for labor unionism helped secure better working conditions for blue-collar factory workers after WWII, as well as create substantial economic growth.
[2] Non-regular, part-time, or foreign workers within factories do not fall into this same remuneration structure, despite becoming an increasingly large part of the Japanese labor market in recent years.
[9] In the agricultural sector, foreign workers have become an increasingly important source of labor, especially in fruit and vegetable production.